An animation of atmospheric water vapor and soil moisture from December 1999 through June 2000 for North America from the NSIPP global climate model
Big cities influence the environment around them. For example, urban areas are typically warmer than their surroundings. Cities are strikingly visible in computer models that simulate the Earths land surface. This visualization shows evaporation rates predicted by the Land Information System (LIS) for a day in June 2001. Evaporation is lower in the cities because water tends to run off pavement and into drains, rather than being absorbed by soil and plants from which it later evaporates. Only part of the global computation is shown, focusing on the highly urbanized northeast corridor in the United States, including the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington.
Water vapor (H2O) in the atmosphere as measured by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on NASAs Aura satellite. MLS can simultaneously measure several trace gases and ozone-destroying chemicals in the upper troposphere and photosphere. In this series of animations we present chlorine monoxide (ClO), hydrogen chloride (HCl), nitric acid (HNO3), ozone (O3), water vapor (H2O) and temperature measurements. These are first light data taken when the MLS was operated for the first time.
