ANIMATION CELEBRATION

Summary

NASA's oldest daily Earth-viewing satellite – Terra – just turned 25 years old, and with five continuously operating instruments onboard (most taking imagery at the same time), Terra has piled up a LOT of data over the years (over 9,000 days and counting!). This data has the potential to shed light on everything from scientific processes to unique events, all while helping solve problems that affect humans. Your challenge is to use data from any or all of Terra's five instruments to create an animated product showcasing an Earth science story and emphasizing the impacts to you, your community, and/or the environment.

Background

NASA's oldest daily Earth-viewing satellite – Terra – just turned 25 years old! And with five continuously operating instruments onboard (most taking imagery at the same time), Terra has piled up a LOT of data over the years (over 9,000 days and counting!).

You're probably most familiar with Terra's "Blue Marble" image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, but Terra captures so much more than just pretty pictures of our home planet! From the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument's categorization of Earth's energy budget, to the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument's keystone archive of carbon monoxide from fires, to layered views of hurricanes and urban growth taken by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument's zoom-focus lens, Terra has collected over a quarter of a century's worth of unique and diverse Earth science data. Because Terra's instruments have operated simultaneously over such a long time, these datasets can be combined through animation to generate new insights about Earth and its processes, revealing layered stories that come alive when set in motion.

Objectives

For Terra's 25th Anniversary, we're inviting you to join us in an Animation Celebration of Terra Data! Your challenge is to use Terra data – from any or all of its five instruments – to create an animated product showcasing an Earth science story that impacts you, your community, and/or the environment. Your product can be 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional and cover any length of time.

Think about how you might make an exciting, animated visualization using Terra data that reveals a unique Earth view or process when set in motion. You could make a movie or series of Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images, or something else! Use whatever format you think best captures the story you want to tell. Want an even bigger challenge? You could create an animated anaglyph or interactive 3-dimensional Geographic Information System (GIS) product. Don't forget to include an element of movement or animation through a subset of time and/or layers, and pair your animation with commentary on the impacts to humans and/or the environment.

Potential Considerations

• You could animate side-by-side comparisons of different datasets to reveal even more "layers" in your animated science story.
• Feel free to mix-and-match any data from Terra's instruments to create an animation…just don't forget to explain your inspiration and choice of product(s).
• If you're using more than one Terra instrument, remember to geographically align the datasets (and be aware of the differences in instrument data resolution, too). P.S. NASA's Earthdata Worldview makes this type of animation easy!