Movie of SeaWinds-derived Winds Over the Ocean
This animated visualization is entirely derived from SeaWinds Scatterometer data. While originally designed to measure winds over the ocean from space, SeaWinds backscatter measurements are also useful for studying ice and land. In this animation, SeaWinds-derived winds are illustrated over the ocean, while SeaWinds backscatter is shown over the Earth's land and ice surfaces. Land and ice surfaces are computer colored to reveal details in the vegetation and ice states.
The temporal evolution of winds and the vegetation and ice signatures are visible in the animation. Over the ocean, color shows the wind speed, while streamlines illustrate the wind direction. Hurricanes, and global circulation patterns over the ocean are visible, including trade winds and the horse latitudes. In the polar view, the dynamic movement of sea ice in response to wind is evident.
Ocean wind data is from JPL SeaWinds L3 while land and ice images were generated from SeaWinds backscatter data by the Brigham Young University Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder project.
