Watch: Nasa video on 20 years of Earth’s seasons shows devastating effect of climate change
The visualisation shows the Arctic ice caps receding over time and the noticeable, but less obvious, melting of the Antarctic ice.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States has released a captivating data visualisation that shows Earth’s fluctuations brought about by changing seasons over the past two decades.
Although the agency said its satellites have been observing and documenting life on land and in oceans from space since the 1970s, it began to do it on a continuous basis since 1997 with the help of the sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor, or SeaWiFS.
“That is the Earth, that is it breathing every single day,” said oceanographer Gene Carl Feldman, “Changing with the seasons, responding to the sun, to the changing winds, ocean currents and temperatures.”
Nasa’s visualisation shows spring coming earlier and autumn lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere, oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project, was quoted as saying by AP. He said the visualisation shows the Arctic ice caps receding over time and the noticeable, but less obvious, melting of the ice in Antarctica.
These observations, Nasa said, raise questions about how ecosystems will respond to climate change.
