Original subtitles

(eerie electronic music)

- [Narrator] We have been observing our home

for 40 years now; in the last 20 of those

we have focused intensely on Planet Earth,

with new technologies and capabilities

accumulating a massive data that is now revealing

a complex and ever-changing living planet.

(dramatic fusion music)

(eerie futuristic music)

They've been watching us from space,

for the last two decades in high-resolution detail,

watching our every move.

Clouds and aerosols, winds and hurricanes,

forests and cities, droughts and floods,

the ocean currents and plankton,

life in the ocean and on land.

Land cover.

Aerosols.

Chlorophyll concentrations.

Wave heights.

Ozone concentrations.

Atmospheric moisture.

The human footprint.

Sea-level change.

And temperatures and moisture in the soil.

Now scientists have a high-definition dataset

spanning two decades to study and to learn from.

- NASA has a fleet of satellites

that are always measuring Earth.

They're looking at land, oceans,

atmospheres, ice, altogether.

The particular visualization represents the measurement

of all life on Earth over 20 years.

I personally find it mesmerizing.

You're watching the Earth breathe here.

The seasons are changing.

Ice is coming in, and retreating.

You can see the forests on land in green

expanding and contracting.

Can see the deserts moving to the ocean.

You can see biological deserts in the centers of the ocean,

represented by blues and purples.

And then, as you look further north in the Atlantic,

or towards Antarctica, you can see these greens and yellows.

Explosion of life in the ocean

just like on land in the spring and summer.

Incredible.

- What we see for the first time

is how the oceans and the land behave at the same time,

through time, for 20 years.

We've never had data like these before.

Half of our photosynthesis occurs in the oceans

and the other half on land.

Having these data to show both at the same time,

day after day, month after month,

year after year for 20 years,

is a great tool to study life on Earth.

NASA has observed many aspects

of the coupled land-ocean-atmosphere system

and how they interact.

For example, we see that with warmer surface temperatures,

the growing season is getting longer

at higher northern latitudes, and spring is coming earlier.

With satellite data we're able to map this

continuously across the Earth's surface

and across the United States and across Alaska.

Before that time, you had to rely

where you had weather stations,

and so you had points here, points there,

but you never had continuous data like these.

Using these data, we can look over very large areas,

and see regional effects.

Sometimes these effects are positive,

and nothing bad has happened.

It's only with these data we're able to do this

over all these areas at the same time,

and this is made possible by the use of Earth-viewing

satellites, which orbit the Earth day after day,

month after month, year after year.

These data are the basis for saying these things about Earth

with confidence because we measure them.

- [Jeremy] The view from space is opened our eyes

to so many different things.

You can see transitions from La Nina to El Nino,

represented by huge blooms of life across the Pacific Ocean

at the Equator, bigger and wider than the United States.

You can see greening of the Arctic.

You can see earlier summers, later winters,

and you can see the emergence of harmful nuisance algae.

(aural music)

- [Narrator] Charting the carbon-dioxide cycle through

the atmosphere, land, and ocean is essential

to understanding the environmental changes

that man is driving.

Higher carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the Earth's atmosphere

appears as red and yellow,

while lower-than-average CO2 is shown as blue.

The pulsing of the data is due to

the day-night cycle of plant photosynthesis.

As CO2 is lifted away from the surface,

it is rapidly spread around the world

by high-altitude winds.

CO2 builds up in the Northern-Hemisphere winter,

when plants are dormant.

By summer, photosynthesis draws massive amounts

of CO2 out of the atmosphere,

resulting in lower CO2 throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

The growth and decay of vegetation in the northern lands

causes the seasonal change in atmospheric CO2.

Longterm, however, it is human activity

that is increasing overall CO2 levels.

- 2017 was the second-warmest year ever recorded,

and the warmest non-El-Nino year.

That makes five of the warmest years

ever recorded just since 2010.

NASA scientists have taken weather-station data

from over 6,000 stations, and we've connected the dots

to understand how our Earth is changing.

In this.

Growing as we look at how much

high latitudes in places like Alaska have warmed since 1950.

So, across the globe we're seeing a consistent trend

towards warming but with twice as much warming

across the high latitudes like Alaska.

(aural music)

- [Narrator] This rapid increase

in overall global temperatures is clearly defined

when satellite data is added to the model.

- The ability to expand your senses into space,

compress time, watch visualizations like these,

see how the ecosystems of land, ocean, atmosphere,

ice, all interact, and then be able to rewind it,

and watch it again and again,

it's, yeah, it's amazing.

(dramatic fusion music)

(somber aural music)

- [Narrator] Ask any astronaut.

When they look down at Earth, they see a single environment.

No borders, no plains,

just a single planet which we all have to rely on.

With this data, scientists can check up

on the health of the plant.

One primary concern is the Ozone Layer.

- We know the Montreal Protocol was a huge success.

This was signed in late 1980s,

when scientists and policymakers from around the world

gathered together to try to save the Ozone Layer.

- The chemicals they regulated persist

in the atmosphere for many decades.

They thin the Ozone Layer,

and they create a seasonal hole over Antarctica.

They basically take away part of our planet's

natural sunscreen, and that increases the risk

of skin cancer and damage to plants.

- [Narrator] Scientists have projected the ozone hole

will disappear almost completely by 2075.

But several factors could delay that outcome.

- There're some industrial compounds

that did not banned by the Montreal Protocol,

but as they enter the atmosphere,

they will also hurt the Ozone Layer.

- But the unregulated compounds have a short lifespan

in the atmosphere, unlike the chlorofluorocarbons

that were originally regulated.

So they have a short-lived impact on ozone,

and we don't think they'll delay recovery

by more than a few years.

- We've projected, by 2050 more than half

of the ozone-depleting compounds in the atmosphere

will come from long-lived substances banned by the protocol.

- [Narrator] Because these compounds stay in the air

for such a long time,

compared to the unregulated short-lived compounds,

they will have a disproportionate

and lingering impact on ozone.

Any noncompliance with protocol

can have significant consequences.

- The really big uncertainty in Ozone-Layer recovery

is climate change.

There're many naturally-produced ozone-depleting substances

that're emitted by the oceans,

and as the oceans continue to warm due to climate change

those emissions will increase,

and that will further delay ozone recovery.

- [Narrator] Scientists want to understand better

how climate change will affect ozone recovery.

- This is a hard problem.

As a scientific community,

we need to work on this major issue.

We now have a powerful new tool to simulate atmosphere

and its interaction with land and ocean to study this issue,

and that's what we're going to do.

- [Narrator] At the top of the world, however,

the arctic ice continues to shrink.

(concerned aural music)

- Sea ice is the ice that grows

and melts within the Arctic Ocean.

It grows in the wintertime when it gets cold,

and melts during through the summertime.

It doesn't raise sea level but it's very important

for the global climate system because the ice is very bright

and reflective, reflects a lotta the Sun's energy

that comes in during the summertime

and helps keep the Arctic cooler.

It's like a refrigerator for the global climate system,

by keeping the globe cooler

than it normally would be without sea ice.

As we lose the ice,

it's like we're opening the refrigerator door,

and not cooling things as efficiently as we used to.

- [Narrator] Constant observation since the '70s

lets us see a trend.

- The Arctic sea ice has been changing quite rapidly.

We've seen a decline over 35-plus years of our record.

The last 15 years, particularly, it's been accelerating.

So, really, it's become a matter of when,

not if we lose the Arctic sea ice,

because we have a lotta warmth in the Arctic,

it's gonna continue to warm,

we're gonna continue to melt sea ice.

There's uncertainty as to exactly when that will happen,

but sometime in the not-too-distant future,

faster than we used to think, the Arctic Ocean

will be substantially ice-free by the end of summer.

Arctic sea ice is not the only place

we're seeing big changes.

We're also seeing big changes in Greenland,

which is the big massive ice on top of the continent,

and we're seeing more and more melt,

we're seeing ice calving off as icebergs.

We're seeing big masses of ice loss

over the last several years.

That means that that ice is going into the ocean,

that's raising sea level.

That's gonna have big impacts down the road

as we continue to lose more and more ice from Greenland.

(concerned aural music)

- [Narrator] Ancient air bubbles trapped in ice

enable us to step back in time, and see what Earth's

atmosphere and climate were like in the distant past.

Today we stand on the threshold of a new geologic era

which some term the Anthropocene, where the climate

is very different to the one our ancestors knew.

- We can see that a warmer world means

that there's an impact for warming temperatures

in the Arctic, melting sea ice.

That sea ice leads to larger sea-level rise.

NASA scientists are on the ground, in airplanes,

and using our satellite data to understand how what starts

in the Arctic doesn't exactly stay in the Arctic.

(dramatic fusion music)

- [Narrator] The hope is that all this data collection

will mean that real-world problems can be reassessed

and new angles explored.

A case in point: dolphin and whale stranding.

Could this accumulated satellite data

help address the problem?

Cape Cod in the US State of Massachusetts

is home to one of the most frequent marine-mammal

stranding sites in the world.

- If we can get there quickly, and provide supportive care,

they have a much better prognoses in terms of survival.

- [Narrator] Scientists know very little about why

these mammals strand, and only a quick

and efficient response in these events will save lives.

Katie Muir works on the frontline,

and has fine-tuned rescue efforts.

- If we can develop an algorithm that pieces together

the different variables that may be causing mass strandings

or driving mass strandings,

then we have the ability to then prevent them.

We can have teams that are out on the shore

looking for animals in those hotspots,

knowing that all those variables have come together

and this is a likely point in time

where we're likely to see it.

But we can also have teams ready to respond

so that if they do strand, we're there that much faster,

and more animals will survive the event.

- [Narrator] Marine biologists from

the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

were also looking at this problem.

- For the large proportion of these strandings,

the animals are across the ages, in pretty good health,

and there's no really immediate evidence

as to why they actually strand.

- [Narrator] One possibility is geomagnetic perception:

the ability to navigate using Earth's magnetic field,

which is believed to be used by marine mammals.

Could changes in the magnetic field confuse the animal?

Geomagnetic pulses or storms can be caused by space weather.

- Geomagnetic perception is one of the theories.

I thought: "Well, hmm, if a magnetometer can pick it up,

"maybe the animals actually can pick it up."

- [Narrator] Dr. Reeb consulted with NASA

at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

- [Scientist] The coolest thing was that we realized

that nobody had really taken a cold hard data

science analysis look at the problems.

- What we're trying to look at here

was if there was a potential driver or relationship

or correlation between the occurrence of mass strandings

and any solar activity.

- The data that we have correlated, or analyzed so far

is information about the local geomagnetic conditions.

We have long data records from geophysical observatories

of the local geomagnetic-field variations

and marine-mammal stranding.

- [Narrator] Their analysis was inconclusive.

They needed more data from other environmental conditions.

- Easy-fix correlation between a geomagnetic pulse

and, ooh, a stranding, doesn't seem to be very evident,

but what it does show is that there are multiple variables

involved in this equation and that the geomagnetic storms

could just be one very small part of it, significant still.

But, it looks like there are multiple oceanographic

and environmental elements.

- [Narrator] With more data in hand,

it was time to expand the team.

They recruited statisticians and the expertise

of NASA Earth-science data analyst

and oceanographer Erdem Karakoylu.

- A dataset, no matter its shape or content,

always has a story to tell.

Trying to figure out how different data are connected,

I think, require a wide diversity of skills

and background knowledge.

- For example, I'll be explaining

how a mass stranding occurs and how we respond to try

and understand why I'm presenting the data in a certain way,

and my colleagues from NASA will look at me,

and ask questions that wouldn't think to ask

because I take for granted my understanding,

and they're coming at it from a totally new angle

with no background.

- [Narrator] These datasets may reveal a pattern,

allowing scientists to predict the likelihood

and location of mass stranding before it happens.

- We've really sort of slowly peeled the first layer

of this onion back, and I think that there's so many

more layers that still need to be addressed and looked it.

I hope that we can actually find additional collaborators,

additional funding partners to really bring all the data

that's really available to really give this

the study and the scrutiny that it deserves.

- We are also going other make all these datasets

available to the entire scientific community

so that we can utilize the entire scientific community,

attack, and a new approach to this problem.

- I think that there will be other things

to take and run with, get new ideas, maybe add more data.

I'm hoping also there will be a model

for how projects can then be opened to the wider public.

(emotional music)

- The ability to release animals

after they've stranded is tremendous.

When we do that, that's the best feeling in the world

after all of that hard work.

- Those questions that seem unanswerable,

if you give them time and support and effort

and put people on them, we can do amazing things.

(emotional piano music)

(dramatic fusion music)

- [Narrator] Data from satellites reveals

the interconnection between air, sea, and land.

This is a visualization of three aerosols:

dust, smoke, and sea salt.

The CALIPSO-Satellite data reveals in 3D

how dust from the arid Sahara Desert

is lifted by the winds each year, and transported

nearly 5,000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean.

(pensive music)

Some of it settles in the Amazon Basin,

the largest rainforest on the planet.

Sahara dust contains phosphorus,

an important nutrient for plants.

CALIPSO shows that, on average,

182 million tons of dust leaves Africa each year.

When the Sahel was dry, the dust transport

to the Amazon in the next year would increase;

when it was wet, dust transport would decrease.

We can now track global precipitation, wind currents,

cloud cover, and ocean temperature.

Satellites have detected a shift in phytoplankton

populations across the planet's five great ocean basins,

showing the expansion of biological desert

where little life thrives.

Diatoms are one of the most abundant types

of marine phytoplankton, but a new 15-year-long NASA study

reveals global populations have declined.

Diatoms, like all phytoplankton, have chlorophyll,

the same photosynthesizing pigment as plants.

They occupy the surface of the ocean,

where they harvest light from the Sun.

In large numbers, diatoms form colorful swirling blooms

that can be seen from space.

According to the study,

significant decreases in populations, shown here in red,

are mainly in the Northern Hemisphere.

- Diatoms rely on nutrients such as nitrate, silicate,

and iron to reach the surface layer where they live.

What the study shows is that the availability

of these nutrients has changed

due to the Wave Cycle within the water column.

- [Narrator] Diatoms occupy the surface area of the ocean

called the Mixed Layer.

Nutrients collect on the ocean floor,

and are cycled up to this layer.

Various physical forces can cause the depth

of the mixed layer to become shallower

so that fewer nutrients reach the diatoms.

Without these, their populations decline.

This map shows areas on the globe

where the depth of the Mixed Layer shallowed.

- It's hard to pinpoint exactly

why these change have happen.

Things like wind, circulation, and temperature can affect

the way these nutrients are brought to the surface layer.

We hope a longer study can yield more information

on whether these changes are, in fact,

a trend or variability.

(majestic orchestral fusion music)

- [Narrator] Next-generation satellites

are reaching orbit now to continue this important work.

They will collect data, maintain observation continuity,

and allow scientists to track

the changes in our environment.

They can then model dynamic simulations

to better understand this unique planet

and the myriad of lifeforms that rely on it.

(majestic orchestral fusion music)

(dramatic fusion music)