Download Global Microscope Presentation

On the first day of the Ross Sea Institute, Liberty Science Center used their Global Microscope
to display numerous data sets and animations on a sphere. While is technology isn’t readily
available to teachers, the data is the same, and can be a resource within the classroom.
For this presentation most of the data used is freely available from

NOAA’s Science on a Sphere

NASA’s Earth Observatory.
In addition to the links below that relate directly to the talk given, these sites offer a wealth of
global data and animations. Many of these links navigate to a QuickTime file, and will start the
animation automatically.
The Blue Marble: http://sos.noaa.gov/highres-dataset-movies/bluemarble.mpg
From our first glimpses of Earth from orbit, the blues of the ocean, and clouds in the sky
captured the imagination. NASA refers to images like these as the Blue Marble, playing on the
similarity of appearance between planet and toy.
Ocean Draining:
ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/oceans/ocean_drain/land/ocean_drain_land_2048.mp4
Within our solar system, the presence of so much liquid water is unique to our world.
Imagining an Earth without the ocean is a barren, hostile place. This image is using false color
imagery to highlight elevation.
Ocean Winds: http://sos.noaa.gov/videos/vector_winds.mov
ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/oceans/vector_winds/vector_winds_2048.mp4 (significantly larger
file)
Wind is often thought of as a local phenomenon from an individual’s viewpoint, but the Earth
has major wind patterns that help shape and drive both our weather patterns, and ocean
surface currents. The “Trade Winds” or “Jet Stream” are two examples of these larger scale
winds. This animation uses arrows to indicate the direction the wind is blowing, and color over
the ocean basin to indicate speed. In general the higher sustained wind speeds are seen near
the high latitudes.
Ocean Currents: http://sos.noaa.gov/datasets/Ocean/seacurrents.html There is also a KML file
to use in Google Earth listed at bottom of page.
The surface currents are mostly driven by atmospheric winds. Unlike the winds, these currents
are diverted when they encounter land masses to north or south depending on the
hemisphere. The currents are as a rule of thumb narrowest and strongest on the western
edges of ocean basins. This animation shows ocean currents in green, with some yellows and
reds for higher velocities.
Ocean Conveyor Belt:
ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/oceans/ocean_conveyor_belt/oceanconveyorSM.mp4
The Conveyor Belt is a stylized model to illustrate the connectedness of water at all depths and
across all ocean basins. This water can move in different time frames vertically versus
horizontally and at depth, but what is important is there is only one ocean.
Sea Surface Temperature: ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/oceans/neo_sst/neo_sst_2048.mp4
The temperature of the surface water of the ocean can change with atmospheric temperatures
throughout the seasons. Many surface currents can also be seen as variations in the
temperature of the current compared to surrounding water. Below the photic zone of the
ocean there is little to no change in water temperature across the globe.
Land Temperature Anomoly:
http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Search.html?datasetId=MOD_LSTAD_M
An anomaly is when the conditions depart from average conditions for a particular place at a
given time of year. The maps show daytime land surface temperature anomalies for a given
month compared to the average conditions during that period between 2000-2008. Places that
were warmer than average are red, places that were near normal are white, and places that
were cooler than average are blue. The observations were collected by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
From this site you can choose to download images from various months and compare from
month to month or year to year. There is also sea surface temperature anomaly available at
NASA’s Earth Observatory but the land surface anomaly is easier to relate to and potentially
connect to current events.
Sea Ice 2009: http://sos.noaa.gov/videos/05-06_seaice3.mov
Sea Ice coverage of the arctic varies with the season, melting in summer, refreezing into fall and
winter. As average global temperatures rise, the poles are seeing the largest changes. More
sea ice is melting in the arctic each summer than in previous decades. 2010 looks like it will
break the 2007 sea ice minimum record. Once the white ice melts, the blue of the ocean below
retains more heat (albedo effect) and can result in further melting. Also if the water is warmer
at the end of summer it will be slower to refreeze in the winter and the following summer may
start with less ice to begin with. Some estimates suggest there will be no summer arctic sea ice
at all by 2050 if this trend continues.