NASA Views Our Perpetually Moving Ocean

A new NASA animation shows the global movement of Earth's ocean surface currents from June 2005 to December 2007. The animation was created using data from NASA satellites, direct ocean measurements and a numerical model developed by NASA JPL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Image credit: NASA/SVS
› Larger image | › Download video April 09, 2012

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.

The high-definition visualization is available in 3-minute and 20-minute versions at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3827 .

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, or 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.

Data used by the ECCO project include: sea surface height from JPL's Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite altimeters; gravity from the JPL/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission; surface wind stress from JPL's QuikScat mission; sea surface temperature from the NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS; sea ice concentration and velocity data from passive microwave radiometers; and temperature and salinity profiles from shipborne casts, moorings and the international Argo ocean observation system.

These model-data syntheses are among the largest computations of their kind ever undertaken. They are made possible by high-end computing resources provided by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/perpetual-ocean.html .

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Aries Keck 301-286-1742
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Aries.c.keck@nasa.gov

2012-099

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NASA Views Landing Site through Eyes of Future Moon Crew

This movie is a simulation of the amount of solar illumination in the south polar region of moon over a solar day generated using high resolution topography.
+ Play animation (Quicktime - 1.6Mb) February 27, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA has obtained the highest resolution terrain mapping to date of the moon's rugged south polar region, with a resolution to 20 meters (66 feet) per pixel. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., collected the data using the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert. The imagery generated by the data has been incorporated into animation depicting the descent to the lunar surface of a future human lunar lander and a flyover of Shackleton Crater.

The mapping data collected indicate that the region of the moon's south pole near Shackleton Crater is much more rugged than previously understood. The Shackleton rim area is considered a candidate landing site for a future human mission to the moon.

"The south pole of the moon certainly would be a beautiful place to explore," said Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors two and a half times deeper than the Grand Canyon. There are challenges that come with such rugged terrain, and these data will be an invaluable tool for advance planning of lunar missions."

Three times during a six-month period in 2006, scientists targeted the moon's south polar region using Goldstone's 70-meter (230-foot) radar dish. The antenna, three-quarters the size of a football field, sent a 500-kilowatt-strong, 90-minute-long radar stream 373,046 kilometers (231,800 miles) to the moon. The radar bounced off the rough-hewn lunar terrain over an area measuring about 644 kilometers by 402 kilometers (400 miles by 250 miles). Signals were reflected back to two of Goldstone's 34-meter (112-foot) antennas on Earth. The roundtrip time, from the antenna to the moon and back, was about two-and-a-half seconds.

"I have not been to the moon, but this imagery is the next best thing," said Scott Hensley, a scientist at JPL and lead investigator for the study. "With these data we can see terrain features as small as a house without even leaving the office."

Previously, the best topographic resolution of the moon's south pole was generated in 1997 by a team lead by Cornell University scientist Jean-Luc Margot also using Goldstone. Margot's team produced topographic maps of the lunar south pole with spatial resolution of 150 meters (490 feet) and a vertical accuracy of 50 meters (165 feet). The new resolution generated by JPL provides more than three times finer spatial resolution and 10 times finer vertical accuracy than the 1997 data.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will provide the next generation of lunar imaging and data. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in late 2008. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera will retrieve high-resolution images of the moon's surface and lunar poles with resolutions to 1 meter (3.3 feet). These images will provide knowledge of polar illumination conditions, identify potential resources and hazards, and enable safe landing site selection. Other instruments aboard the orbiter will return data such as temperature maps, ultraviolet images, characterization of radiation on the moon and a high-resolution 3-D map. NASA's quest for up-to-date imagery of the moon also will benefit from international missions such as Japan's Selene robotic probe.

Funding for the program was provided by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

To view animation, terrain maps of the moon's south pole and images from this story, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/022708.html .

Video animation developed from the high-resolution imaging also will air on NASA Television. For NASA TV downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA. To learn more about them, visit: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

For information about NASA's exploration program to return humans to the moon, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Stephanie Schierholz/Beth Dickey 202-358-4997/2087
NASA Headquarters, Washington
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov, beth.dickey-1@nasa.gov

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