Google"A passage of water"Bringing NASA's water data to life, this immersive visitor experience leverages satellite data to illustrate how climate change is impacting the Earth's water cycle. As part of a long-standing partnership between NASA and Google, NASA has partnered with Google Arts & Culture and artist Yiyun Kang to create a global freshwater resource title"A passage of water"interactive digital experiences.
As shown in the figure, the International Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is the first global mission to survey the Earth's surface waters. SWOT's high-resolution data helps scientists measure how the Earth's water bodies change over time. **jpl/cnes
This immersive experience leverages data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite and new high-resolution data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topographic Map (SWOT) mission to illustrate how climate change is impacting the Earth's water cycle.
Thursday, November 30, ahead of the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates"a passage of water"The digital version is published online. Google will also host a physical demonstration of the visualization project in the Blue Zone at COP28.
Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate adviser in Washington, said:"NASA is the U.S. space agency that provides end-to-end research on our planet, and it's our job to inform the world of what we've learned. In'A passage of water'Highlighting our geoscience data in the installation, it is a unique way to share information in an easy-to-understand way around the important links between climate change and the Earth's water cycle"。
For six decades, NASA has been collecting data on Earth's land, water, air, and climate. This data is used to inform decision-makers on ways to mitigate, adapt to, and respond to climate change. All of NASA's geoscience data can be accessed by scientists and the public in a variety of ways.
NASA Director of Earth Sciences Karen St. Germaingermain) said"NASA has studied our Earth and its interconnected systems more than any other planet in the universe. 'a passage of water'Provides an opportunity to highlight the public availability of SWOT data and other NASA geoscience data to tell meaningful stories, raise awareness, and help those who must make real decisions in their families, businesses, and communities. "
SWOT, a collaboration between NASA and France's Centre National for Space Research (CNES), is measuring the height of nearly all bodies of water on the Earth's surface, providing one of the most detailed and comprehensive views of the Earth's freshwater bodies to date. SWOT provides insights into how the ocean is affecting climate change and how a warming world is affecting lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.
The detailed information about the world's oceans and freshwater provided by SWOT is a game-changer. "Ben Hamlington, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said:"We're just beginning to study the data provided by this satellite, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that information takes us. "
The Google project also uses data from Grace and Grace follow-up tasks. The former is a collaboration between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and the latter is a collaboration between NASA and the German Geoscience Research Center (GFZ). From 2002 to 2017, Grace tracked local changes in the Earth's mass distribution caused by phenomena including the movement of water on Earth. grace-fo went live in 2018 and is currently running.
Like previous GRACEs, the GRACE-FO mission monitors changes in ice sheets and glaciers, near-surface and subsurface water storage, water volumes in large lakes and rivers, and changes in sea level and ocean currents, providing a comprehensive view of the evolution of the Earth's water cycle and energy balance.
A passage of water"is the latest digital experience created under NASA's Space Act agreement with Google, and the resulting content will be widely available to the public for free on Google's web platform. The collaboration is part of a six-agreement series of projects designed to share NASA content with audiences in new, engaging ways.