Earth  ID: 3913

Gulf Stream Sea Surface Currents and Temperatures

This visualization shows the Gulf Stream stretching from the Gulf of Mexico all the way over towards Western Europe. This visualization was designed for a very wide, high resolution display (e.g., a 5x3 hyperwall display).

This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project entitled Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2). ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. The ECCO2 model simulates ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. There are 2 versions provided: one with the flows colored with gray, the other with flows colored using sea surface temperature data. The sea surface temperature data is also from the ECCO2 model. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x.


Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Hong Zhang (UCLA): Scientist
Dimitris Menemenlis (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3913

Mission:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

Data Used:
GTOPO30 Topography and Bathymetry
Data Compilation - USGS
Hipparcos/Telescope/Tycho 2 Catalogue also referred to as: Tycho Catalogue
Database
ECCO2 High Resolution Ocean and Sea Ice Model also referred to as: ECCO2
Model - NASA/JPL
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Flows

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Physical oceanography
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Ocean Circulation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Ocean Circulation >> Ocean Currents
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0