(task) Nasa map of Earth's seasons over 20 years highlights climate change | Science | The Guardian

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NASA, climate change, science, mapping
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> https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/18/nasa-map-of-earths-seasons-over-20-years-highlights-climate-change <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/18/nasa-map-of-earths-seasons-over-20-years-highlights-climate-change>
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> Nasa map of Earth's seasons over 20 years highlights climate change
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> The visualization shows spring coming earlier and the Arctic ice caps receding over time
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> Associated PressFriday 17 November 2017 22.12 EST
> Nasa <https://www.theguardian.com/science/nasa> has captured 20 years of changing seasons in a striking new global map of planet Earth​.
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> The data visualization, released this week, shows Earth’s fluctuations as seen from space.
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> The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance – or lack – of undersea life.
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> “It’s like watching the Earth breathe. It’s really remarkable,” said Nasa oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project.
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> Two decades – from September 1997 to this past September – are crunched into two and a half minutes of viewing.
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> ​Werdell said the visualization shows spring coming earlier and autumn lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere. Also noticeable to him is the Arctic ice caps receding over time – and, though less obvious, the Antarctic, too.
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> ​In the oceans, Werdell was struck by “this hugely productive bloom of biology” that exploded in the Pacific along the equator from 1997 to 1998 – when a water-warming El Nino merged into cooling La Nina. This algae bloom is evident by a line of bright green.
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> In considerably smaller Lake Erie, more and more contaminating algae blooms are apparent, appearing red and yellow.
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> All this data can provide resources for policymakers as well as commercial fishermen and many others, according to Werdell.
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> Programmer Alex Kekesi of Nasa’s Goddard Space <https://www.theguardian.com/science/space> Flight Center in Maryland said it took three months to complete the visualization, using satellite imagery.
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> ​The visualization will continually change, officials said, as computer systems improve, new remote-sensing satellites are launched and more observations are made.