WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:01.550 --> 00:00:05.570 I’m Alex Kekesi. I’m the data visualizer with 2 00:00:05.590 --> 00:00:09.590 the NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio. 3 00:00:09.610 --> 00:00:13.600 I’m Compton Tucker and my responsibility in this is the interpretation 4 00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:15.430 of what’s happening on land. 5 00:00:15.450 --> 00:00:19.450 And I’m Gene Feldman, I’m an oceanographer at NASA Goddard 6 00:00:19.470 --> 00:00:23.460 and I'm responsible for everything wet. And I'm Lauren 7 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:27.480 Ward. I'm a video producer here at Goddard Space Flight Center 8 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:31.490 and will be moderating the conversation. So with that, let's jump 9 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:34.160 right into it - what exactly are we looking at? 10 00:00:34.180 --> 00:00:38.170 What we're looking at is the abundance of plants on land and in the ocean 11 00:00:38.190 --> 00:00:42.200 and in the ocean we're looking at microscopic plants called phytoplankton 12 00:00:42.220 --> 00:00:46.210 on the land its sort of an aggregate of all vegetation. 13 00:00:46.230 --> 00:00:50.230 But they breathe, they 14 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:54.240 they respire and the follow the sun in terms of their seasons 15 00:00:54.260 --> 00:00:58.260 Can you describe the changes that happened in twenty years since this data 16 00:00:58.280 --> 00:00:59.990 set first began? 17 00:01:00.010 --> 00:01:04.010 Yeah, as crazy as it sounds, even though we have twenty of data 18 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:08.020 we're still at a point of - in my mind - just the wonder 19 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:12.050 of it. I could just sit and watch this for hours. 20 00:01:12.070 --> 00:01:16.070 And for me, I've got look at it two different ways. One is just to take 21 00:01:16.090 --> 00:01:20.080 a big step back, and look at the world as whole 22 00:01:20.100 --> 00:01:24.090 Don't focus on anything in particular, but just - what am I seeing? 23 00:01:24.110 --> 00:01:28.110 What are the patterns that I'm seeing? And the main thing 24 00:01:28.130 --> 00:01:32.130 is that there's this seasonal cycle moving north 25 00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:36.140 and south. The land and the ocean 26 00:01:36.160 --> 00:01:40.150 the both bloom with the rising sun. 27 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:44.150 If you just set back and watch it you'll see this wave of green 28 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:46.110 move north and south with the sun. 29 00:01:46.130 --> 00:01:50.140 Back and forth, and you see that 30 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:54.150 so dramatically in this visualization. 31 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:58.170 And Gene and I have been studying this for a long time using satellite data 32 00:01:58.190 --> 00:02:02.170 But what's really cool for us is that you see it for the oceans as well as the land 33 00:02:02.190 --> 00:02:06.190 Yeah, which we never saw before the satellites 34 00:02:06.210 --> 00:02:07.680 Is that what makes this viz so special? 35 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:11.700 What's so critical about this, this is the only data set 36 00:02:11.720 --> 00:02:15.720 that we have that really shows the biological response 37 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:19.730 to environmental change. We have we all these other instruments 38 00:02:19.750 --> 00:02:23.750 that measure how the Earth changes, what the temperature, 39 00:02:23.770 --> 00:02:27.760 the winds, the currents, rainfall - things like that. We have 40 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:31.790 all of that. But this data set shows what does the Earth's 41 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:35.820 biology do in response to that environmental change 42 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.830 And think that's one strengths of the SVS is being able to show that data 43 00:02:39.850 --> 00:02:43.850 in a way that a normal, average person can respond to. 44 00:02:43.870 --> 00:02:47.860 And we you've been able to do, Alex, is you make it beautiful. 45 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:48.890 It is very attractive. 46 00:02:48.910 --> 00:02:52.910 We're looking at the Living Earth, we're looking at our home planet 47 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:56.920 change day in and day out 48 00:02:56.940 --> 00:03:00.940 and there's a visceral connection that we have to this 49 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:01.700 home of ours. 50 00:03:01.720 --> 00:03:05.720 We know, there's only planet we know that has 51 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:09.750 and active biosphere, or a biosphere, and that's our 52 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:13.790 planet. We know from the Hubble Space Telescope there are one to two trillion 53 00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:17.800 galaxies in the universe - galaxies - and this 54 00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:21.840 only planet that we know which as life, and its very special and its very 55 00:03:21.860 --> 00:03:25.850 dear and this representation to me, captures that. 56 00:03:25.870 --> 00:03:29.860 I mean, on my part, I mean really the challenge here was kinda 57 00:03:29.880 --> 00:03:33.860 wrangling all this twenty years worth of data 58 00:03:33.880 --> 00:03:37.880 so I mean, you guys did an amazing job at collecting 59 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:41.890 it all, and creating 60 00:03:41.910 --> 00:03:45.900 data sets that can be easily be used together. I mean with the biosphere 61 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:49.930 its primarily SeaWIFS, VIIRS 62 00:03:49.950 --> 00:03:53.960 Aqua, is it Aqua? Modis - yeah 63 00:03:53.980 --> 00:03:57.980 You look at this image and there's so much here that 64 00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:59.510 we still don't understand. 65 00:03:59.530 --> 00:04:03.520 I agree with Gene. We're looking at the consequence 66 00:04:03.540 --> 00:04:07.530 of instruments on satellites not looking away from Earth, but 67 00:04:07.550 --> 00:04:11.540 looking at Earth through time, how thing change, how things 68 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.560 vary or don't. It's just fascinating to look at 69 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:19.570 and its so dynamic and this is what's great about time series 70 00:04:19.590 --> 00:04:23.580 Well that's one of the thoughts I had was that the people in this room right now 71 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:27.600 if you ask yourself the question, "What have I done to make sure 72 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:31.630 that the Earth is a healthier and safer place?", I think the people in this room 73 00:04:31.650 --> 00:04:35.650 can fairly say that they've done quite a lot in collecting 74 00:04:35.670 --> 00:04:39.690 the data and then creating the data a in a way people can understand it 75 00:04:39.710 --> 00:04:43.700 What I love about this is there are no country boundries 76 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:47.720 there's no distinction between land science and ocean science 77 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:51.740 It's one world, one planet, one home 78 00:04:51.760 --> 00:04:53.090 This is our Living Planet. 79 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:57.100 Exactly, and the more we as humans 80 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.110 on this planet, inhabitants of the planet, look as this as 81 00:05:01.130 --> 00:05:05.130 one entity that we are all responsible for, I think 82 00:05:05.150 --> 00:05:09.140 I think the sooner we will be able to come up with solutions to a lot of the problems 83 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:13.150 that we're facing right now. We have to look at this as one planet 84 00:05:13.170 --> 00:05:17.180 where what happens in place effects what happens in another place 85 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:21.190 One planet, one climate, one people 86 00:05:21.210 --> 00:05:29.146 we're all in this together.