Debuting in spring 2010, the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) is the new name for a Goddard Space Flight Center organization that has provided supercomputing resources to NASA scientists and engineers for over 25 years.
This is a video I produced to explain weather and climate modeling, and how supercomputers help us understand our changing planet.
In March 2010 I traveled to Thule, Greenland with NASA’s Operation IceBridge. I spent two weeks filming, blogging and photographing the mission. The question I’m asked the most is, “how cold is it really?” Well, it was really, really cold! It ranged from -30F to around freezing but the winds were killer. It was a great experience and this is one video from my time in Thule. Hopefully there will be more to come!
This Climate Essentials multimedia gallery brings together the latest and most popular climate-related images, data visualizations and video features from Goddard Space Flight Center on one web page.
Together with the Earth Science Storytelling Team and specifically the producers and writers working on the Warming World campaign, I created this go-to space for science-based climate visuals.
Browse our top ten most popular climate resources, or select from the categories below. You can download the imagery in a variety of formats directly from this site. For more multimedia resources on climate and other topics, search the Scientific Visualization Studio. To learn more about NASA’s contribution to understanding Earth’s climate, visit the Global Climate Change site.
How will climate change impact agriculture? This episode explores the need for accurate, continuous and accessible data and computer models to track and predict the challenges farmers face as they adjust to a changing climate. [Co-Producer, 2009]
This is the last installment of the Science for a Hungry World series.
Water plays a crucial role in agriculture and food security. This episode shows how the water cycle works and examines the question of how changes in the water cycle could impact agricultural outputs and the role of irrigation.
This episode was produced by fellow NASA producer, Jen Shoemaker. [Supervising Producer, 2009]
Sponsored by USAID, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) was designed to help governments and aid agencies assess the need for food aid before a famine develops. This episode describes FEWS NET and looks at how FEWS NET uses NASA data to make decisions on the ground. [Producer/Writer/Editor, 2009]
NASA remote sensing data is used to measure how much land is used for agriculture and where farms are in relation to population density. This episode explores the transition between native vegetation, farms, and cities. Satellites show where land use changes have been most significant. [Producer/Writer/Editor, 2009]
Satellites can reveal how many fields have been planted and how a crop is growing, providing a way to predict how much of a given commodity will be available at harvest. Governments and aid agencies use this information to help them make informed decisions about food prices, trade, and the possible need for aid long before harvest. [Producer/Editor credit to Jefferson Beck] [Supervising Producer, 2009]
NASA satellite remote sensing data provide the world with essential information that enables government organizations to feed the hungry, policymakers to make informed decisions, and aid organizations to provide relief.
This series of videos illustrate the value of the unique perspective gained from space and enforces the need for global agricultural monitoring and accurate forecasting. The six episodes will define the global food system, look at NASA’s role in providing an uninterrupted supply of satellite remote sensing data for agricultural production monitoring, explore the successful partnerships and monitoring tools used to provide an understanding of the global perspective on agriculture, and examine the concepts of land cover and land use change, food security, the availability of water resources, and global agricultural production in a changing climate.
Agriculture is more than growing food and fuel and getting it to market. This first of six episode defines the global food system as an interconnected, dynamic, and complex structure. [Producer/Editor, 2009]
CHECK BACK EACH WEDNESDAY FOR A NEW INSTALLMENT IN THIS SERIES!
This video was produced for Earth Science Week 2009 (Oct 9-16th). It was one of six videos. The rest of the videos produced by our team can be found here: http://climate.nasa.gov/esw/videoseries/
Water is all around us, and its importance to nearly every natural process on earth cannot be underestimated. It is vital to life, but it is also tightly coupled to climate, helping to carry heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. Changes to the water cycle affect climate and vice versa. The water cycle is the movement of water around the Earth in all its forms. Imagine the path a molecule of water might take after it evaporates from the salty ocean. It might condense and return to the ocean as rainfall, or it might move through the atmosphere as water vapor and fall onto the land surface as freshwater rain or snow. Snow may become part of an ice cap or glacier, where the water molecule could remain for centuries, or it might soon melt and enter the soil or a stream. Rain wets the soil, becoming available for plants to use. The water molecule may drain into an aquifer, where it could remain for many years before feeding into a stream. Streams flow into lakes and rivers, but along the way the water molecule might be captured for use industry, agriculture, or drinking and other domestic needs. Ultimately, the water molecule will return to the ocean where the journey begins anew. This video explains what the water cycle is and how important it is to life on earth.
