WEBVTT FILE

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[slate]

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[slate]

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[Text on screen] Question 1: This new timelapse shows 20 years of life on Earth. Show us what's happening here.

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What

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we see for the first time is how

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the oceans and the land behave at the same time, through time,

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for 20 years. We've never had data like these before.

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Half of our photosynthesis occurs in the

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oceans and the other half on land, and having these data

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to show both at the same time -

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day after day, month after month, year after year -

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for 20 years is a great tool

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to study life on Earth.

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[Text on screen] Question 2: What trends has NASA observed over the last two decades of studying life on Earth?

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Well, NASA has

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observed many aspects of

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the coupled land ocean atmosphere system and how

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they interact. For example,

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we see that with warmer surface temperatures the growing season

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is getting longer at higher northern latitudes

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and spring is coming earlier. With

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satellite data we're able to map this continuously

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across the Earth's surface and across the

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United States and across Alaska. Before that time

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you had rely where you had weather stations, and so

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you had point here, points there, but you never had

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continuous data like these.

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[Text on screen] Question 3: How are the ecosystems changing in the U.S. and North America?

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Well,

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in the United States with these data we see several

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very interesting things. We see in many areas, like in the

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southeastern United States, things have been

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fairly constant and good overall year after year

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in the southeastern U.S. In

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Texas we observed very clearly a major

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drought in 2010. And in California

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and in the pacific northwest we

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see the manifestations of drought also very

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clearly in 2015, 2016.

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So, using these data we can look

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over very large areas and see

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regional effects and something these

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effects are positive and nothing bad has happened.

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So it is only with these data we are able to do this

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over all these areas at the same time. And this is made possible

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by the use of Earth viewing satellites,

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which orbit the Earth day after day,

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month after month, year after year, and these data are

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the basis for saying these things about

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Earth with confidence because we measure them.

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[Text on screen] Question 4: How is Earth helping us search for life on other worlds?

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We have learned from our satellite studies of Earth that we need to look for water

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and we need to look for gases in the atmosphere

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like carbon dioxide and methane. Because

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these gases and water on Earth are fundamental

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to life on Earth and we

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- if we're looking for life on other planets, that's what we

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need to look for.

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[Text on screen] Question 5: Where can we learn more?

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If you need more information the place to go

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is nasa.gov/earth

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nasa.gov/earth and there's

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a wide variety of information from NASA satellites,

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visualizations, a lot of really cool graphics.

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That's where you need to go to get more information if you're interested.

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