Multimedia Gallery
Dynamic Earth visualization excerpt (Image 2)
This screenshot from "Dynamic Earth Visualization Excerpt: Coronal Mass Ejection and Ocean/Wind Circulation," by Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and Tom Bridgman of Global Science & Technology Inc., was an entry in the video (screenshots) category of the 2013 Visualization Challenge, now called the Vizzies.
The video segment "Coronal Mass Ejection and Ocean/Wind Circulation" is part of a longer film called "Dynamic Earth: Exploring Earth's Climate Engine" that has played to audiences in planetaria around the world. The segment used real satellite data and six computational models to create a vision that is both beautiful and scientifically accurate. Its long, swooping scenes reveal how different parts of the climate system interact at very different scales. "It's one of the top visualizations we've ever done," says Horace Mitchell, who leads NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. To view the full video, go to the 2013 winners page on the Vizzies Special Report website and search for "Dynamic Earth" and then click the "video" link.
While this screenshot was not a winner, another screenshot (see Image 1) from the video won first place in the video (screenshots) category of the 2013 Vizzies, a long-running, annual competition co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Popular Science magazine. [The competition was formerly named the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) and was previously co-sponsored with AAAS' journal Science.] The competition aims to recognize some of the most beautiful visualizations from the worlds of science and engineering and awards prizes in five categories: photography, video, illustration, posters & graphics and interactives.
To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, past and present, see the NSF Special Report The VIZZIES: Visualization Challenge. (Date of Image: June 2012) [Image 2 of 3 related images. See Image 3.]
Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center; and Tom Bridgman, Global Science & Technology Inc.
See other images like this on your iPhone or iPad download NSF Science Zone on the Apple App Store.
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (9.5 MB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.