Environmental Visualization Program
Animations from Satellite Data

The La Niña is the climatic antithesis of El Niño. Whereas El Niño created equatorial Pacific warming due to weak surface winds, La Niña arises from very strong easterly winds that promote the upwelling of deep, cold waters to the surface of the ocean. These colder than average waters are visible in the animation as blue and purple colors. Like El Niño, the La Niña also alters global precipitations, ocean and atmospheric circulation. These climatic changes differ depending on the region examined.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation is a climatic cycle that is characterized by reduced easterly winds around the Pacific equator. Without these winds, warm water accumulates off the coast of South America and slowly spreads across the Pacific. Higher than normal temperatures, shown as orange and red in the animation, alter global precipitation, ocean and atmospheric circulation.

This animation shows the global annual temperature anomalies from 1880 to the present. As also shown in the animated graph, the average temperate of the Earth has increased since 1880, when compared to the average temperatures of 1960-1991. Notice the rapid appearance of orange and red over the U.S. in the last 25 years.

This animation shows three years of sea ice concentration data, as observed by the NASA QuikSCAT satellite. Notice how the North Pole ice minimum is at the opposite time of the year as the South Pole's. This difference is cause by the axis of Earth's rotation creating different seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres.

The change in the ozone hole over Antarctica is shown from the NOAA-16 polar orbiting satellite from Jan 1, 2006 to Nov 6, 2006. Notice how the size of the hole is enlarging during the colder months. See NASA and NOAA Announce Antarctic Ozone Hole is a Record Breaker for more information.

Movement of aerosol plumes over the oceans are shown in the NOAA-16 Aerosol Optical Thickness from July 2005 to August 2006. Notice the large amout of aerosol coming off the coast of Africa. See NESDIS' Office of Satellite Data Production and Distribution

NOAA operates two different satellite constellations, defined by how they orbit the Earth. Shown are examples of geostationary vs. polar-orbiting satellites.

An integrated Global Earth Observation System of Sytems (GOESS) is a major priority for NOAA. Shown here are the environmental satellites involved in GOESS in the actual orbits.

NOAA uses the commercial OrbView satellite to monitor chlorophyll in the ocean. This monitoring is improtant for fisheries management and harmful algal bloom warnings. Shown is the change in phytoplankton chlorophyll during 2005. Notice how the black areas shift up and down during the "polar night"...the time when the poles receive no sunlight.

This animation depicts Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential (TCHP) during the 2005. The TCHP differs from sea surface temperature in that it takes into account water temperature below the surface. TCHP is defined as a measure of the integrated vertical temperature from the sea surface to the depth where the ocean temperature is 26ºC (the minimum temperature needed to produce hurricanes). The more red areas in the animation have more heat energy available for hurricane intensification.

This animation shows the heating and cooling of the world's oceans over the course of three years. Warm colors (orange, red) indicate warm temperatures; cool colors (blue, purple) indicate cold temperatures. Visible is the extremely intense El Nina of 2003-2006. It can be identified by an undulating band of green color around the equatorial region off of South America. Another characteristic of the La Nina is the extremely warm ocean temperatures of the West Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Also visible is the fluctuations in the distribution of sea ice (dark grey) around the poles. The images were produced from temperature sensors aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fleet of geostationary and polar orbiting satellites. This data is crucial for such activities as monitoring the health of marine ecosystems, detecting the start of El Nino or La Nina, monitoring the threat of ice bergs, and providing data on the potential for severe hurricanes.

This animation shows the wave propagation from the June 10, 1996 tsunami that formed off of Andreanov Island in the Aleutian Archipelago off Alaska. Also depicted are the Deep ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoys that are used by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to detect and alert the public to the presence of tsunami threats. An interesting enhancement of this animation, originally provided by the NOAA Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory, is the underlying ocean topography. You can see how the waves interact with ocean bottom features.

This rotating globe animation displays satellite altimetry data showing the topographic features of the continents and oceans. The data was compiled from the U.S. Navy GEOSAT (Geodetic/Geophysical Satellite) and European Space Agency's ERS-1 satellites, as well as information from high resolution ship- based soundings of the ocean floor. Try to identify 1. Tectonic plate margins, 2. Marianas Trench, 3. Hawaiian Islands undersea mountain chain, 4. Mid-Atlantic ridge, 5. Areas of divergence, convergence, and transform-faults.

Between 8:20 and 8:30 PM on March 12, 2006, the city of Springfield, IL, was affected by a pair of F2- strength tornadoes. These tornadoes killed 2 people, injured 50, and caused $2.5 million in damage. The NOAA GOES-12 satellite captured infrared imagery of the system as it moved across the plains. Using color enhancements, the rapid intensification is evident. In this color scheme "cold"/blue colors indicate stronger storm intensity. Though the actual tornadoes are not visible, the intense storm system can be seen.

This animations shows all of the cyclonic activity associated with the 2005 hurricane season from June to November. The 2005 hurricane season was a record breaker: the most named storms, three of the six most intense storms on record, the latest forming storm, and the most costly season in property damages. The infrared imagery was captured by the NOAA GOES-12 satellite with 4km resolution. Names of all of the tropical storms and hurricanes are included in the animation.

Colorized satellite infrared (IR) imagery was used to show the relative intensity of Hurricane Katrina as it moves towards the U.S. coast during August of 2005. White colors indicate the cold, high elevated clouds that are associated with the most intense storm activity. Green colors are the low-level, warmer cloud tops that are less intense. Again, notice how rapidly the storm reorganizes and intensifies once it reaches the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

During tropical storm and hurricane activity, NOAA flies aircraft into the storms to acquire highly accurate data on wind speeds, pressure, etc. This animation overlays the flight paths of two hurricane hunter missions during Hurricane Michelle (November 2001).

The animation shows the progression of Katrina as it intensifies from a tropical storm on Aug 22, 2005 to a hurricane, crosses the Florida peninsula, 5. in the Gulf of Mexico, and makes landfall near New Orleans on Aug 29, 2005. Notice how rapidly the storm reorganizes once it reaches the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.