This visualization shows the magnitude of the wind speed over the course of one year from atmosphere-only simulations of the high resolution (horizontal 1/4 degree) Community Earth System Model simulating the present day climate. Movies Movie File (.mp4, 1920×1080, 588MB) Images Science Credits Susan Bates and Nan Rosenbloom Computational Resources This research used resources…
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Planetary Water Vapor
This visualization shows hourly time steps of CESM1 total column integrated water vapor (TMQ) for one year. The value of TMQ at each point determines the amount of 3D surface displacement. Higher values of TMQ have a larger displacement, helping to visually identify regions with the most significant temporal changes in water vapor. Movies Quicktime…
Read moreChino Hills Earthquake
Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) researchers are working to improve ground motion simulations for California by developing more realistic small-scale models of the earth’s near-surface structure. The two animations shown in this visualization compare simulation results showing peak ground velocities at the earth’s surface for the M5.4 Chino Hills California earthquake. For the two simulations…
Read moreSunspots
Transition from umbra to penumbra shows changes in magnetic field. The interface between a sunspot’s umbra (dark center) and penumbra (lighter outer region) shows a complex structure with narrow, almost horizontal (lighter to white) filaments embedded in a background having a more vertical (darker to black) magnetic field. Farther out, extended patches of horizontal field…
Read moreCESM Decadal Prediction Large Ensemble
Forecasting decadal trends in the North Atlantic and Arctic Decadal climate predictions exhibit skill in retrospective predictions of observed multi-year trends in sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice fraction in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the Atlantic sector. The skill is largely attributable to realistic ocean initialization, but external radiative…
Read moreWind Turbine Performance
Wind Turbine Simulation And Its Animation: Computational Study of Wind Turbine Performance And Loading Response to Turbulent Atmospheric Inflow Conditions Movies Movie File (1920×1080, MP4, 362MB) Images Developers: University of Wyoming: Dimitri Mavriplis Michael Stoellinger Michael Brazell Andrew Kirby Zhi Yang Parallel Geometric Algorithms, LLC.: Jay Sitaraman Visualization and Meshing Support: Intelligent Light: Earl Duque…
Read moreNCAR’s Wind Forecast Improvement Project 2
By the end of 2016, the state of Oregon had an installed wind generating power capacity of over 3 Gigawatts. Wind power, while clean and renewable, requires constant load balancing due to variable weather conditions. These conditions must be met with state of the art forecasting methods in order to maximize load balancing efficiency. New…
Read more1997 and 2015 El Niño Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies
A brief comparison of changes in sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies between the major El Niño event of 1997-98 and the El Niño event emerging in 2015. The visualization depicts data from the NOAA 1/4° daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST). The data are combined from sources such as satellites, buoy networks, and ships.…
Read moreHurricane Odile
Hurricane Odile swept across the Baja California Peninsula in September 2014 leaving behind widespread damage, flooding, and power outages. It reached category 4 intensity before weakening as it tracked across the length of the peninsula. This visualization is a 15-minute Hurricane Weather Research Forecast (HWRF) simulation (1251x1251x61) of Hurricane Odile shortly after it made landfall.…
Read moreDrought Potential in the 21st Century
The United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades, according to a new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai. The detailed analysis concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much…
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