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You will be directed to the NASA Visible Earth webpage when you select Images by Mission below, or click on the images at right that are randomly generated to represent four out of all possible topics.

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Science Communication Material

NASA's Earth Observing System provides a variety of materials available for download. Feel free to choose a category below:

CYGNSS Mission Brochure
PDF icon CYGNSS_508.pdf, Binary Data CYGNSS.ibooks

This brochure provides an overview of NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission--NASA’s first satellite mission to measure surface winds in the inner core of tropical cyclones, including regions beneath the eyewall and intense inner rainbands that could not previously be measured from space. These measurements will help scientists obtain a better understanding of what causes variations in tropical cyclone intensity, helping to improve our ability to forecast tropical cyclones such as Hurricane Katrina.

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Earth System Ruler
PDF icon Ruler_508.pdf

Like the human body, Earth comprises diverse processes and systems that interact with one another in complex ways. The purpose of NASA’s Earth science program is to advance our scientific understanding of Earth as an integrated system and its response to natural and human-induced changes. NASA works with its domestic and international partners to support a large number of Earth-observing satellite and airborne missions to observe and understand our planet on global and regional scales. These missions are able to collect measurements of surface temperature, winds, water vapor, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, ocean salinity, and other aspects of the environment. While scientists learn a great deal from studying individual phenomena, improved observational capabilities, coupled with process-level and global numerical models increasingly allow them to study component system interactions, leading to unprecedented insight into how Earth functions as one integrated system of systems.

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El Niño and La Niña
PDF icon El Niño-La Niña PDF (2.6 MB)

This lenticular flip card shows El Niño (December 27, 2015), neutral (January 15, 2014), and La Niña (November 15, 1999) sea surface heights relative to a reference state established in 1992. In the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean, the sea surface height during El Niño was higher by more than 18 cm over a large longitudinal region.

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NASA Science Program Support Office Annual Report 2016
PDF icon NASA SPSO 2016 Annual Report PDF (5.27 MB)

The Science Program Support Office (SPSO) supported 25 domestic and international science conferences and public events in FY2016. The SPSO strives to provide an inspiring and interactive venue for every event during the year, using a unique storytelling approach that allows a variety of audiences worldwide to connect with NASA Science. The 2016 Annual Report provides a broad overview of these activities, along with details about new Hyperwall stories, publications, social media, key partnerships, and more!

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NASA Science Resource Brochure
PDF icon NASA Science Resources.pdf

This brochure contains a variety of useful links—a great resource for those interested in exploring the many facets of NASA. Have fun exploring!

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Ocean Phytoplankton, El Niño and La Niña
PDF icon Ocean Phytoplankton PDF (2.8 MB)

This lenticular flip card shows monthly sea surface chlorophyll in the Pacific Ocean as observed during El Niño (December 2015), neutral (December 2013), and La Niña (December 1999) conditions. Due to warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures, increased stratification, and a decrease in upwelled ocean nutrients, El Niño conditions in 2015 caused the local marine food web to experience loss of its usual food supply.

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Sensing Gravity from Space: GRACE Follow-On
PDF icon GRACE Follow-On Lenticular (6.8 MB)

The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission will map variations in Earth’s gravitational field. GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which began orbiting Earth on March 17, 2002. Unlike other missions, the GRACE satellites together form the “instrument”: Two identical spacecraft, orbiting Earth at about 220 km (137 mi) apart, will constantly send signals to each other to measure and track how the distance between them changes as gravity pulls on each satellite. This lenticular card illustrates the movements of the satellites as they pass southward from the Caribbean Sea across Colombia and Peru (i.e., a denser landmass) to the Pacific Ocean.

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Understanding Earth: Our Ocean
PDF icon UnderstandingEarth-OurOcean_508.pdf, Binary Data UnderstandingEarth_OurOcean.ibooks

Viewed from space, Earth appears as a blue marble, as approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by ocean water. The vast ocean holds roughly 97% of the planet’s water and represents 99% of the living space on Earth. NASA has been observing Earth’s ocean from space for more than 38 years, beginning with the launch of the first civilian oceanographic satellite, Seasat, on January 28, 1978. This brochure explains how NASA has the ability to observe and detect changes in the ocean (and on Earth as a whole) on a variety of spatial and temporal scales—ultimately positioning the Agency to improve life on our planet.

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Understanding Earth: What's Up with Precipitation?
PDF icon Precip508.pdf, Binary Data Understanding Earth Whats Up with Precipitation.ibooks

Precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls quickly from a cloud. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, grapple (soft hail or snow pellets), and hail. Today, scientists can measure precipitation directly—using ground-based instruments such as rain gauges—or indirectly—using remote sensing techniques (e.g., from radar systems, aircraft, and Earth-observing satellites). This brochure describes how satellite observations—often combined with other measurements taken on the ground or from aircraft—provide frequent estimates of precipitation at a global scale. Among other uses, precipitation datasets from NASA are used for forecasting tropical cyclones; monitoring soil moisture conditions and freshwater availability; and predicting flood and drought conditions, landslides, crop yields, and water-related illnesses.

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What Color is the Ocean? Activity
PDF icon NASA_What Color is the Ocean_Activity Brochure Cover_508.pdf, PDF icon Ocean Color Activity Brochure_Z_Card_508.pdf

In this activity, you will use a simple spectrophotometer to test how light at different visible wavelengths (blue, green, red) is transmitted, or absorbed, through four different colored water samples.

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