

Perpetual Ocean by NASA [video] - DeusExMachina
http://youtu.be/WEe1bVjORN4

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karamazov
This has a remarkable similarity to Starry Night.

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0x006A
anyone knows if the data is available in a format that could be used to make a
WebGL viewer out of it? would be nice to be able to spin the globe around.

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TomGullen
Great video! Here's a nooby question though, why don't the oceans settle down?
Is it to do with the moon? And does this mean oceans on planets without moons
are perfectly calm?

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ORioN63
The moon does have a effect on Earth's oceans, but the biggest reason why
oceans are active, is the variation of temperature both in the atmosphere and
in the water(This also creates a variation on pressure). The difference on air
pressures, will create wind, which in turn create waves.

Ocean currents exist because different places on Earth are at a different
temperature, and therefore the water will feel a pressure force to go
elsewhere.

This is quite a generalization, but meteorology is a complex science, and
there is much to dig in.

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jessriedel
Sure, but you didn't completely answer his question: the reason the oceans
don't settle down is because the sun continuously drives these temperature
gradients.

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libraryatnight
It'd be neat to see a version of this similar to the Windmap posted earlier.

<http://hint.fm/wind/>

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radarsat1
This is very detailed, how do they make these measurements? I assume it is
based on measurement but interpolated using simulation of some kind.

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_delirium
It's a visualization of the data produced by the ECCO2 project
(<http://ecco2.org/>), which feeds all available measurements of temperature,
current, etc. into an MITgcm fluid-circulation simulation model
(<http://mitgcm.org/>), which then estimates the most likely circulation.

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tomelders
Could this be used to plot more fuel efficient shipping routes?

I know nothing about shipping routes by the way, I'm just speculating.

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rmah
Ocean currents have been well known and used for shipping for hundreds, if not
thousands of years.

