Thursday, December 6, 2018

The Human Journey to the Blue Marble and Beyond: Movies



Movies from:
The Human Journey to the Blue Marble 
and Beyond

A Photographic History of Looking at Earth and Weather from Space from the Dawn of the Space Age 
to the Present Day 1946 - 2018


If you touch the links they should take you directly to the movies. Be sure to watch them full screen for best effect.



Figure 7: First Movie of the Earth from Space on December 11, 1966            (SSEC)

You can watch examples of the movies that I made with help from Suomi and Jack Cornfield at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj4AecJzcf0

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Figure 20: NASA Goddard Movie - Destination Earth 2004       ( Jentoft-Nilsen & Allen)

To view the Destination Earth 2004 Visualization, DE2004,on the Web go to Drop Box at:


or with sound on YouTube:https://youtu.be/_EWBnsxkAC4

The animations in Contact and the AMNH started with Earth and traveled to outer space: My movie started in outer space and traveled to Earth. Key frames from the movie are seen on the next page.

The movie was funded directly by NASA Headquarters Associate Administrator for Earth Sciences, Ghassem Asrar and the movie was made by Marit-Jentoft Nilsen and Jesse Allen at Goddard.

Destination Earth 2004 is a HD quality animated visualization zoom.

 The following are seen on the opposing page in Fig. 19:
1) Originating in the Hubble Deep Space Field

2) Approaching and passing through a simulated Milky Way Spiral Galaxy (our sun is one of its 200 Billion stars)

3) Passing through a Super Nova Explosion (observed by Hubble)

4) Passing through the Cassini Rings of Saturn as observed by Hubble (Note: The Sun is
increasing in size and the Milky Way is now seen in the background

5) Grazing the giant gas planet Jupiter as observed by Hubble

6) Passing through a simulated asteroid belt

7) Circling the red planet Mars with the locations of the Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity marked as white dots. (The Curiosity Rover had not reached Mars at this time)

8) Approaching the Earth’s Moon

9) Earth Rise over the Moon (a simulation of what the Apollo 8 astronauts saw in 1968)

10) Approaching the Earth as we see parts of Africa, Asia and Europe (as observed by Terra)

11) Approaching North Africa, Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea (as observed by Terra)

12) Approaching Greece (as observed by Terra)

13) Approaching Athens and zooming in on the 2004 Olympic Games (as observed by Landsat & Spot)

14) Zooming in on the Olympic campus and the Olympic stadium, site of the opening and closing ceremonies (as observed by Spot)

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       Figure 65: ATS-3 Color Image Sequence, 1967    (SSEC)
See above in Fig. 64, three frames of the ATS-3 color movie that I made together with Jack Kornfield and Suomi in 1967. 

You can see some examples of our ATS-3 movies at: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaN2ZVxKQ8U





Figure 66: Hurricane Florence Eye from GOES    (NOAA)
An example of a one-minute interval animation of the Hurricane Florence eye wall and eye.

You can see it on the web from the drop box link:


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Figure 71: 2 Weeks IR - Global GEO System -

The first frame of a two-week sequence of 11µm infrared images from five geosynchronous images stitched together into a global polar stereographic projection is shown in Fig. 68. 

You can view the sequence in an animation from Dropbox at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/stnik36br91o6k0/NCEP_GlobalGEO_Movie_1280x720_H.264.mov?dl=0


1 1)    Cold things are white and warm things are black. Clouds are cold and appear white. Deserts heated by the sun are warm and appear black. As the Earth turns, the world’s desert regions are heated by the sun. The Australian deserts, the African deserts and the Western Hemispheric deserts (Western US and Andes Mountain deserts) sequentially heat up and turn black. 

2 2)    You can see the extratropical cyclones turning to the left (counter clockwise) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the right (clockwise) in the southern Hemisphere. Since this is a two-week sequence you can watch how a particular cyclone moves from West to East and morphs into radically different shapes. Weather forecasting is basically the forecasting of that easterly speed of transport and the morphing of the cyclones over periods up to 10 days. Even with the best initial conditions (data), knowledge of the physics and the biggest computers in the world it is not an easy task.

3 3)    All along the Equator we see the “popcorn” cumulous of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). If you have seen the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, his airplane is forced down by deep convection (a severe thunderstorm) in the ITCZ.

4 4)    You can also see a tropical cyclone approaching Karachi Pakistan in the Arabian Sea. We would call a storm like this a hurricane if it were approaching the US.

5 5)    If you look carefully you can see a light area of dust coming off the West Coast of Africa from the Sahara Desert over the Atlantic Ocean towards the end of the sequence.


Figure 95: Terra SeaWiFS Ocean and Land Productivity   (GSFC Lab for Atmospheres) 
SeaWiFS Ocean & Land Productivity Visualization:

The SeaWiFS Ocean Color Instrument has 8 visible to near-infrared wavelength sensors from 402 to 880 nm chosen primarily to detect chlorophyll. In the image on the previous page, areas of high productivity are green, and red. Low productivity areas are yellow and brown. A striking feature is the green band in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In an El Niño year there is strong upwelling of cold-water rich in nutrients. This forms the basis of a rich food chain that starts with tiny Phyto plankton, and proceeds to small krill, and continues to normal sized fish and on to the large tuna, sharks, and even giant whale sharks and whales. You can also see the rich high latitude ocean areas like the Gulf of Alaska that draw whale migration. Overly rich eutrophic dead zones like the one off the Mississippi Delta appear as red.  

To see an animation of the data in Fig. 95 press the link below


Figure 96: Computer Simulation Animation of World Ocean Currents           (LANL)
Global Ocean Current Simulation: 

In the next image, we see a Los Alamos Labs global ocean current simulation that does not come from space born observations. However, it gives another window on what is going on in the planet’s oceans. Higher speed currents are lighter green, yellow and red. 

You can see the animation at:

 https://youtu.be/alKBoVjeyYM


Some of the outstanding and fascinating features of the currents are as follows:

1) The Gulf Stream starting south of the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba, shooting the gap between Cuba and Yucatan forming the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico, shooting the gap between Cuba and Florida and continuing up the East Coast of the US and finally as giant eddies across the Atlantic to Europe. Ships take advantage of the fast 4 mile/hour current to speed travel up the East Coast, but the most important effect of the warm Gulf Stream is the moderation (warming) of the climate of Europe. Europe is at such a high latitude that it would be much colder without the Gulf Stream.

2) The complimentary Agulhas Current starting North of Madagascar, passing though the gap between West Africa and Madagascar, continuing down the West Coast of Africa and splitting off across the Southern Indian Ocean and the roaring forties south of Australia and around the whole planet.

3) The Labrador Current going from North to South, passing between Greenland and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The Labrador Current transported the infamous iceberg from the Arctic into the North Atlantic where it was struck by the Titanic Ocean Liner in April of 1912.

4) The Indonesian Throughflow manifests itself as numerous high-speed currents shooting the gaps between islands of the Indonesian Archipelago. It is an ocean current with importance for global climate since it provides a low-latitude pathway for warm, fresh water to move from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean and this serves as the upper branch of the global heat conveyor belt. (Wikipedia). The source of this current also has a Northern branch which serves to moderate the climate of Japan.

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Figure 98 Computer Simulation of Atlantic Ocean Currents                (LANL)

Description of Atlantic Ocean Current Simulation 

In this animation, the colors represent ocean temperature with blue being cold and red hot. Again, we have the warm Gulf Stream starting south of the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba, shooting the gap between the Cuba and Yucatan forming the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico, shooting the gap between Cuba and Florida and continuing up the East Coast of the US. The point here is that if the loop current were to have extended further North into the Gulf or if the oil spill shown in Fig. 93 had drifted further South, the Gulf stream would have carried the oil between Florida and Cuba and polluted beaches far up the East Coast of the US. 

You can see the animation at the linkhttps://youtu.be/y1X305ebj6Q

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Figure 111:  Zoom to SLC  2002 Winter Olympics, 2002       
(GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio)
Here is the first frame of a zoom by the Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio to the 2002 Winter Olympics, that was shown during the opening and closing ceremonies.

The 720 X 480 Version of the zoom starting out in space and zooming in to the Rice Eccles Stadium site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City




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2017: GOES 16 Ushers in a new Era in Geosynchronous Weather Satellites

November 19, 2016, NOAA launched GOES 16. From small beginnings 50 years ago, over 45 geosynchronous weather satellites have been launched by many countries: US 18, Europe 10, Japan 8, India 9.

Note The following Figures are single frames from animations.

 Examples of GOES 16 animations can be found on the web at: https://www.goes-r.gov/multimedia/dataAndImageryVideos.html



Figure 152: GOES 16 - The First True Color Image from GEO in 50 Years 
 January 15, 2017                (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at at the link:


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Figure 153: GOES 16 IR image, 2017                                                 (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at at the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdgacw4fne7nt09/2017_04_GOES-R.Flt.MSR_V2.mov?dl=0

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Figure 154: GOES 16 observes the Weather in 16 Spectral Bands, 2017                                                                                                                         (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at at the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh64t68nlck3t3b/ABI_All16Bands_2017038_1km_loop_2017038_143434_2017038_182934.mp4?dl=0

GOES 16 observes the Full Earth Disk, a Continental US Sector and a Storm Sector in 16 bands all at the same time. For the first time since 1967 a geosynchronous satellite gives us true color in the visible: Red (.86 µm) Green (.64 µm) Blue (.47 µm) see Figs. 146 and 153 and in addition 13 channels in the infrared going from the near IR at 1.37 µm thru the window channel at 11.2 µm to the far IR at 13.3 µm (lower image)

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Figure 155: GOES 16 IR Observations of a Severe Thunderstorm System, 2017                                                                                                                                                                (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at at the link:

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Figure 156: GOES 16 Visible Observations of a Severe Thunderstorm System, 2017               (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at the link:

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Figure 157: GOES 16 Visible Observations of a Severe Thunderstorm System, 2017                        (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at at the link:




Figure 158: GOES 16 Lightning Data Mapped onto Visible Band Data, 2017      (NASA/NOAA Image)



You  can view this animation from Drop Box at the link:

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Figure 159: GOES 16 True Color of Thunderstorms on the Florida Peninsula, 2017        (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at the link:
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Figure 160: GOES 16 Full Disk, CONUS and Storm Sector Visualization, 2017                            (NASA/NOAA Image)

You  can view this animation from Drop Box at:


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Figure 165: Arctic Sea Ice Melt 2007 – January, First Movie Frame                   (Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)

Take a look an animation of the melting Arctic Sea Ice (North Pole) from space: January to September 2007:

 














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