The swirling flows of Earth’s perpetually changing ocean come to life in a new NASA scientific visualization that captures the movement of tens of thousands of ocean currents. Developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the visualization is based on a synthesis of a numerical model with observational data. The model was created under a NASA project called Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO).
A joint project between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, ECCO uses advanced mathematical tools to combine satellite and in-ocean observations with the MIT numerical ocean model to obtain realistic descriptions of how ocean circulation evolves over time.
The visualization covers the period from June 2005 to December 2007.¨¨ECCO model-data syntheses are being used to quantify the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle; to understand the recent evolution of the polar oceans; to monitor time-evolving heat, water, and chemical exchanges within and between different components of the Earth system; and for many other science applications.
Image courtesy of NASA/SVS.