Seasonal Dance is an animated visualization created entirely from simulations using the GENESIS earth systems model. The video displays repeated annual cycles of

green Leaf Area Index,

fractional sea ice cover

and fractional snow cover on land.

The video is intended to leave the viewer with a strong sense of the cyclic nature of the surface fields that are displayed. The video starts by presenting the seasonal variation of vegetation from several different global viewpoints and then proceeds to add snowcover and sea ice until all three variables are animated simultaneously.

Excerpt (857 KB mpeg) illustrating the cyclical nature of all three surface fields.

Sea ice and snow cover information were taken from a simulation using the GENESIS version 1.02 climate model. Green Leaf Area Index, which is a measure of the amount of green vegetation, was taken from the EVE vegetation model developed as part of the GENESIS project. Topography was exaggerated by a factor of 50 for clarity.

Seasonal Dance received an award at the 75th Anniversary Geophysical Images Contest of the American Geophysical Union (1994).

GENESIS Visualization home page

12/8/97