General Controls
Look at the right side of the map, you will find the following controls:
Year, Month
Use these drop down lists to select the year and month of the data shown the main visualizer map.
Parameters
Use this drop list to select the type of data to be shown in the main visualizer map - sea surface: temperature, temperature anomaly, height anomaly, or chlorophyll.
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Sea Surface Temperature: Colors visualize varying Celsius temperatures over the surface of the globe. Warmer colors such as yellows and reds represent higher temperatures, while cooler ones such as green and blue represent lower temperatures. Data are available for temperature from 1981 - 2021.
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Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly: The color scheme is similar to the temperature parameter in that reds represent higher celcius temperatures and cooler colors represent lower temperatures, however the colors represent differences in temperature compared with average temperatures for the same date. Positive values (warmer colors) indicate that temperatures were warmer than normal for a given area, negative values (cooler colors) indicate cooler than average temperatures. Data are available for temperature anomaly from 1981 - 2021.
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Sea Surface Height: Sea surface height is not the depth of the ocean. Satellite altimeters use active radar to observe the surface height of the ocean which is not smooth or flat. Fluid hills and valleys deviate from a reference (mean geoid) height at the ocean surface. These vertical gradients are of interest for sea level rise, storm predictions, ocean currents, ecosystem ecology and other applications. NOAA Coastwatch. Positive values, indicated by the warmer colors such as yellow and red indicate higher sea surface heights, cooler colors such as green and blue, corresponding to negative values indicate lower sea height. Values are in centimeters. Data are available for height anomaly from 1993 - 2021.
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Sea Surface Height Anomaly: Positive values, indicated by the warmer colors such as yellow and red indicate higher than normal sea surface heights (where normal is, as with temperature anomaly, defined as the average height for all years at this time of the year), cooler colors, corresponding to negative values indicate below normal sea height. Values are in centimeters. Data are available for height anomaly from 1992 - 2021.
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Sea Surface Chlorophyll: Plant-like organisms like phytoplankton use chlorophyll and other light-harvesting pigments to do photosynthesis, absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide to produce sugars for fuel. The maps display chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean in milligrams per cubic meter. Warmer colors indicate greater concentrations per cubic meter while cooler colors indicate lower concentrations. Data are available for chlorophyll from 1997 - 2021.
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Sea Surface Chlorophyll Anomaly: Chlorophyll anomaly displays different-than-normal chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean in milligrams per cubic meter. Warmer (red, orange) colors indicate greater than normal concentrations per cubic meter while cooler (blue, purple) colors indicate lower than normal concentrations. Data are available for chlorophyll from 1997 - 2021.
Interactive Controls
In addition to being able to update the overall map, one can select or click on sections of the map to bring up a new window with data over a series of timesteps for the clicked region.
PopUp Copy
Press this button to put a copy of the map in a separate pop-up window.
Click-On-Map Data
Click on a 2°x2° region of the map which has significant water coverage and a popup window will display a time series of data in the region.
Animation Controls
The main viewer can also present animated forms of the data by using the animation controls described.
Animation
Select the number of frames and press this button to animate the image.
Next Frame
Press this button to view the map on the next available date.
Previous Frame
Press this button to view the map on the next available date.
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