Earth ID: 3198

Global Surface Air Temperature during Hurricane Frances (WMS)

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on July 27, 2005

As the Sun's energy reaches the Earth, it is either reflected, absorbed by the clouds, or absorbed by the Earth's surface. The part absorbed by the Earth's surface heats the Earth, which then heats the air just above the surface. This process occurs rapidly in the case of dry land and slowly in the case of the oceans. This animation shows the surface air temperature at an altitude of 2 meters for the whole globe from September 1, 2004, through September 5, 2004, during the period of Hurricane Frances in the western Atlantic Ocean and Typhoon Songda in the western Pacific Ocean. The animation clearly shows the air over land reacting rapidly to solar heating during the day and cooling at night, while the daily solar cycle is not visible in the temperature of the air over the ocean. A very dynamic region of changing air temperature is visible in the interaction between the cold air over Antarctica and the warmer mid-latitude air over the southern oceans during this region of polar night. Hurricane Frances and Typhhon Songda are just barely visible as circulating temperature patterns in the western Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3198

Data Used:

fvGCM/Global Surface Air Temperature

Model - NASA - 2005-09-01T03:00 -- 2005-09-05T24:00

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This item is part of these series:
WMS
fvGCM

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Typhoons
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Temperature >> Surface Air Temperature
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Natural Hazards >> Meteorological Hazards
GCMD >> Location >> Global
SVS >> Hurricane Frances
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0