Dynamic Earth Dome Show - Biosphere

  • Released Tuesday, October 1, 2013
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This visualization was a prototype affiliated with the 'Dynamic Earth', an Earth science planetarium show. The visualization shows the global biosphere and NDVI from the SeaWiFS instrument with MODIS ice and snow overlayed.The images were rendered using a fish eye technique so that they would project properly onto a planetarium dome.

Earth scientists are able to measure many of the Earth's 'vital signs', and just like a doctor measures our vital signs to see how healthy we are. Scientists will use these measurements of the Earth to better understand how the Earth functions, how the different systems on Earth interact and how those interactions have set the stage upon which life flourishes. The visualization shows a timeseries of images of SeaWiFS Global Biosphere - the ocean's long-term average phytoplankton chlorophyll concentration acquired between September 1997 and September 2007 combined with the SeaWiFS-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over land. On land, the dark greens show where there is abundant vegetation and tans show relatively sparse plant cover. In the oceans, red, yellow, and green pixels show dense phytoplankton blooms, those regions of the ocean that are the most productive over time, while blues and purples show where there is very little of the microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton.

Remote sensing, especially using satellite-mounted colour scanners (SeaWiFS and similar platforms), is advocated for broad-based monitoring of chlorophyll once appropriate algorithms have been developed and proved. The concentration of the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll a (referred to as chlorophyll) in marine waters is a proven indicator of the biomass of phytoplankton, the organisms that constitute the base of the marine food web. Fluorometry provides an estimate of chlorophyll levels in sea water and thus an estimate of primary productivity in the upper part of the water column.

For more information on monitoring the Earth from Space with SeaWIFS see

http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/SeaWiFS/TEACHERS/.

Domemaster composite of biosphere and celestial sphere layers of frames.

Domemaster formatted biosphere layer of frames.

Domemaster formatted biosphere layer of frames.

Biosphere color table

Biosphere color table

Domemaster formatted star background layer of frames.

Domemaster formatted star background layer of frames.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become DigitalGlobe).

This page was originally published on Tuesday, October 1, 2013.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Series

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Datasets used

  • Chlorophyll Concentration [SeaStar: SeaWiFS]

    ID: 469
    Sensor: SeaWiFS Dates used: July 2002 through Sep 2007

    All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye.

    Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become one DigitalGlobe.).

    This dataset can be found at: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/PRODUCTS/

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • Blue Marble Land Cover [Terra and Aqua: MODIS]

    ID: 510
    Sensor: MODIS Dates used: 2002

    Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • NDVI [SeaStar: SeaWiFS]

    ID: 601
    Sensor: SeaWiFS Dates used: Oct 1998 through Sep 2007

    All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye.

    Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become one DigitalGlobe.).

    See all pages that use this dataset

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.