Global Sea Surface Temperature (Jun 2002-Sep 2003)

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Global Sea Surface Temperature from June, 2002 to September, 2003 (WMS)

The temperature of the surface of the world's oceans provides a clear indication of the state of the Earth's 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.

The oceans of the world are falsely colored in this animation. The warmest temperatures are shown in bright yellow and the coldest temperatures are shown in dark green and black. Grey represents areas that have no data values such as coastal regions or land. White represents surface ice.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/AMSR-E

  • Animation ID

    2905

  • Video ID

    None

  • Start Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • End Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • Animator

    Eric Sokolowsky, Greg Shirah, Jesse Allen

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2004/02/12

  • Scientist

    Frank J. Wentz (Remote Sensing Systems), Chelle Gentemann (Remote Sensing Systems)

  • Keywords

    Sea Surface Temperature

  • DLESE Subject

    Physical oceanography

  • Georeference Data

    Geographic Projection: Latitude extents -90, 90. Longitude extents -180, 180.

  • Data Date

    2002/06/02 - 2003/09/07

  • Story URL

    http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/AMSR/

  • Animation Type

    Regular