This is a cloudless image of Sea Surface Temperature taken by Aquas instrument AMSR-E. Three day average data.

This is a cloudless image of Sea Surface Temperature taken by Aquas instrument AMSR-E. Three day average data.

This image shows the difference between the actual sea surface temperature data and the average climatology data in the eastern portion of the Pacific Ocean for February 15, 2002.

The Digital Earth Workbench is an interactive application that runs on a SGI Onyx Infinite Reality system and is controlled by an Immersive Workbench, tracked stereo glasses, and a tracked wand. The application allows an unprecedented freedom to roam georeferenced datasets at multiple resolutions and timescales. This animation is one of a series of direct screen captures of the application in operation. The occasional menu appearance denotes direct intervention by the operator to add or delete data or to activate a new control option.

The Digital Earth Workbench is an interactive application that runs on a SGI Onyx Infinite Reality system and is controlled by an Immersive Workbench, tracked stereo glasses, and a tracked wand. The application allows an unprecedented freedom to roam georeferenced datasets at multiple resolutions and timescales. This animation is one of a series of direct screen captures of the application in operation. The occasional menu appearance denotes direct intervention by the operator to add or delete data or to activate a new control option.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit can be found in animation ids 328 and 1401.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit are in animation ids 1401 and 1402.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit can be found in animation ids 328 and 1402.

This image was developed for use on the cover of the National Geographic ATLAS OF THE OCEANS. Sea surface temperature anomalies are colors, with red being warmer than normal and blue being colder than normal, and sea surface height anomalies are exaggerated heights.

An animation of sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and sea temperature at depth in the Pacific Ocean from July 1997 through November 1998 as measured by NOAA AVHRR, TOPEX Poseidon, and the TAO TRITON Array

An animation of sea surface temperature anomaly, sea surface height anomaly, and sea temperature anomaly at depth in the Pacific Ocean from January 1997 through March 1999 as measured by NOAA AVHRR, TOPEX Poseidon, and the TAO TRITON Array

Sea Surface Height Anomaly for the Equatorial Pacific region from June, 1997, to June, 1998.

The temperature of the surface of the worlds oceans provides a clear indication of the state of the Earths climate and weather. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite measures the temperature of the top 1 millimeter of the ocean every day, even through the clouds. In this visualization sequence covering the period from June, 2002, to September, 2003, the most obvious effects are the north-south movement of warm regions across the equator due to the seasonal movement of the sun and the seasonal advance and retreat of the sea ice near the North and South poles. It is also possible to see the Gulf Stream, the warm river of water that parallels the east coast of the United States before heading towards northern Europe, in this data. Around January 1, 2003, a cooler than normal region of the ocean appears just to the west of Peru as part of a La Nina and flows westward, driven by the trade winds. The waves that appear on the edges of this cooler area are called tropical instability waves and can also be seen in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean about the same time.

This animation shows the sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean in false color from July 2001 to the middle of February 2002

Visualization of global surface temperature.

These animations were produced for the Smithsonian Institution's HoloGlobe Exhibit which opened to the public on August 10, 1996 at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. The various data sets show progressive global change mapped onto a rotating globe and projected into space to create a holographic image of the Earth. The exhibit shows that Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. The exhibit has since been relocated to the west coast. This is a revised version from Animation #116 [The Hologlobe Project (version 2)].

The temperature of the worlds ocean surface provides a clear indication of the regions where hurricanes and typhoons form, since they can only form when the sea surface temperature exceeds 82 degrees F (27.8 degrees C). The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite measures the temperature of the top 1 millimeter of the ocean every day, even through the clouds. In this visualization of AMSR-E data covering the period from June, 2002, to September, 2003, areas with surface temperatures greater than 82 degrees F are shown in yellow and orange, while sea surface temperatures below 82 degrees F are shown in blue. The region in the Atlantic from the Caribbean to the equator only exceeds the critical temperature during late summer and early fall in the Northern Hemisphere, the period known as Hurricane Season. It is also possible to see the Gulf Stream, the warm river of water that parallels the east coast of the United States before heading towards northern Europe, in this data. Around January 1, 2003, a cooler than normal region of the ocean appears just to the west of Peru as part of an La Nina and flows westward, driven by the trade winds. The waves that appear on the edges of this cooler area are called tropical instability waves and can also be seen in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean about the same time.

A rotating cartesian projection of the Earth showing three-dimensional sea surface temperature data from the NSIPP global climate model. High temperatures are in red.

A series of three-dimensional isosurfaces of constant temperature are overlaid on a three dimensional bathymetry dataset of the Earths ocean basins. Higher temperatures are in red and lower temperatures are in blue. Data is derived from the NSIPP global climate model.