Explore our planet on Earth Day
April 22 marks Earth Day. The global event raises awareness about the importance of protecting the planet. I've collected together a number of immersive models to inspire people to learn more about our unique environment.
The Köppen climate classification is the most widely used system to catalog climate types in the world. Areas are divided into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns.
Four layers of satellite images are overlaid here including land and sea temperature, vegitation coverage and chlorophyll concentration. Pause the animation to explore each layer in more detail.
This model highlights the average temperature of the Earth's land, during the daytime in the month of November 2021. Yellow areas show the warmest temperatures (up to 45°C), while light blue shows the coldest temperatures (down to -25°C).
This final model highlights what fraction of an area was cloudy on average during the month of November 2021. From month to month, a band of cloud encircles the equator. This band of persistent cover is called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the place where trade winds converge. The meeting of the winds pushes warm air high into the atmosphere.
Imagery produced by the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) in coordination with the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC), the MODIS Land Science Team, the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Goddard Ocean Color Group, Gene Feldman and Norman Kuring.