The Earth's atmosphere experiences a roller coaster of changes over the course of 24 hours — from dust storms and carbon bursts, to cyclones and sea salt swirls.
While the most sophisticated monitoring devices make 30 million atmospheric observations daily, they fail to fully capture the complex interactions within the permeable membrane surrounding our planet. That's where climate models come in.
Released this week, NASA's "Paint by Particle" video above illustrates Earth's aerosol movement (the suspension of airborne particles) from August 2006 to April 2007. Using mathematical experiments to move Earth forward and backward in time, researchers were able to capture how winds whip aerosols around the Earth. While the results are visually stunning, they also provide critical insight into how such tiny particles influence the entire planet's climate.
"It is a significant computational achievement, and a major undertaking to complete," says NASA research meteorologist William Putman. "We do expect to complete similar simulations in the coming months, with the period to be determined based on scientific interest for what are know as OSSE developments."
At first glance, the imagery resembles that of a animated Vincent van Gogh painting. But the beauty is in the details. Each color represents a different type of particle: dust (red), sea salt (blue), sulphate (white) and black and organic carbon (green).
Watch as they all come together to prove that science really is a work of art.
BONUS: This Year's Top Moments in Space
On a clear weekend in May, the full moon got the closest to Earth that it will reach all year, resulting in what astronomers called the "supermoon." It appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the average full moon.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completed the first triathlon in space. She ran, biked and swam along with athletes in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California this September.
In January, NASA announced that its Kepler telescope had discovered 11 new planetary systems with 26 confirmed alien planets. The "exoplanets" range in size -- from 1.5 times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter.
NASA's Storm Probe satellites captured radio waves caused by the Van Allen belts and rendered them into an audio recording. While you can't technically hear sound in space, the radio waves -- or "chorus" -- is real. Some say the sound is similar to a whale's song.
In order to get to its permanent home at the California Science Center, space shuttle Endeavour had to make one epic journey through the streets of Los Angeles.
A Toyota Tundra pulled the 155,000-pound shuttle on a 12-mile route to the museum, leaving a trail of once-in-a-lifetime photo ops and stories that passers-by will tell their kids for years.
After testing the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle in May, NASA approved SpaceX to deliver a series of cargo shipments to the ISS, bringing a total of 20 metric tons of supplies into space.
In its most recent journey, Dragon spent three weeks on board the station before heading back to Earth with astronaut blood and urine samples.
The mission is a significant step towards making private space flight a near-future reality.
Stuntman Felix Baumgartner jumped 128,00 feet from the edge of space in October. Baumgartner set records for highest jump from a platform (128,100 feet), longest distance freefall (119,846 feet) and maximum vertical velocity (833.9 mph or Mach 1.24). He also broke the YouTube record for "livestream with most concurrent views ever."
Watch his dizzying headcam video for a truly out-of-this-world experience.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured the farthest-ever view into the universe. This photo, called eXtreme Deep Field, reveals thousands of galaxies billions of light-years away. The image is a composite of 10 years of Hubble telescopic views.
Just think, the lights you see in this photo come from planets that no longer exist -- that's how far away it is. Mind. Blown.
This August we said goodbye to the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong passed away at 82 after complications from a heart bypass surgery.
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong made history by placing his left foot onto the surface of the moon and uttering the words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
It is, arguably, the greatest scientific feat of the 20th century.
On a clear weekend in May, the full moon got the closest to Earth that it will reach all year, resulting in what astronomers called the "supermoon." It appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the average full moon.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completed the first triathlon in space. She ran, biked and swam along with athletes in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California this September.
In January, NASA announced that its Kepler telescope had discovered 11 new planetary systems with 26 confirmed alien planets. The "exoplanets" range in size -- from 1.5 times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter.
NASA's Storm Probe satellites captured radio waves caused by the Van Allen belts and rendered them into an audio recording. While you can't technically hear sound in space, the radio waves -- or "chorus" -- is real. Some say the sound is similar to a whale's song.
In order to get to its permanent home at the California Science Center, space shuttle Endeavour had to make one epic journey through the streets of Los Angeles.
A Toyota Tundra pulled the 155,000-pound shuttle on a 12-mile route to the museum, leaving a trail of once-in-a-lifetime photo ops and stories that passers-by will tell their kids for years.
After testing the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle in May, NASA approved SpaceX to deliver a series of cargo shipments to the ISS, bringing a total of 20 metric tons of supplies into space.
In its most recent journey, Dragon spent three weeks on board the station before heading back to Earth with astronaut blood and urine samples.
The mission is a significant step towards making private space flight a near-future reality.
Stuntman Felix Baumgartner jumped 128,00 feet from the edge of space in October. Baumgartner set records for highest jump from a platform (128,100 feet), longest distance freefall (119,846 feet) and maximum vertical velocity (833.9 mph or Mach 1.24). He also broke the YouTube record for "livestream with most concurrent views ever."
Watch his dizzying headcam video for a truly out-of-this-world experience.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured the farthest-ever view into the universe. This photo, called eXtreme Deep Field, reveals thousands of galaxies billions of light-years away. The image is a composite of 10 years of Hubble telescopic views.
Just think, the lights you see in this photo come from planets that no longer exist -- that's how far away it is. Mind. Blown.
This August we said goodbye to the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong passed away at 82 after complications from a heart bypass surgery.
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong made history by placing his left foot onto the surface of the moon and uttering the words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
It is, arguably, the greatest scientific feat of the 20th century.
We could go on and on about this incredible robot and her 23-month expedition on the Red Planet. Curiosity's landing on Mars was dubbed the "seven minutes of terror," and it is reason alone to put her in our top spot.
Since making her landing on Aug. 5, Curiosity has found an ancient streambed where water once flowed, "touched" her first Martian rock, snapped incredible self-portraits and even made the universe's first Foursquare check-in on Mars.
And she still has 20 months left to go.
Image and video courtesy of NASA Goddard Photo and Video
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