NASA Brings Oceanography to Life With Ocean Adventure from Space Exhibit at Westfield Mall in Annapolis

NASA brings oceanography from space to life with five Earth science exhibits in Westfield Shopping Town Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, Md., from April 5-14, 2002. The exhibits are timed to precede the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race to the Chesapeake Bay area on April 17.

NASA supports the educational component of the Volvo Ocean Race by providing satellite data of the ocean regions being traversed by the racing yachts. The flagship exhibit in the mall highlights NASA's SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field Sensor) global ocean color monitoring mission. SeaWiFS supports the Volvo Ocean Adventure by providing content, images and near real-time maps of ocean color wherever the eight yachts are in the world's oceans throughout the nine months of the race.

The Volvo Ocean Adventure is a free educational website designed to increase environmental awareness worldwide among tomorrow's decision-makers. One of NASA's goals is to provide data and information about the oceans to key decision-makers and the general public. Oceanography is an important component of NASA's Earth System Science research, and worldwide interest in the race makes it an excellent teaching tool for oceanography.

The exhibits consist of "The Blue Marble," a 16-foot diameter inflatable globe that shows a composite of data sets of the Earth as taken from space by the NASA's Terra satellite. This globe is located in the mall court area in front of the Hecht's Department Store, and was previously displayed at the Olympic Village for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

There will are also five exhibit panels on "Exploring the Earth from Space," which cover the role of oceans in our climate and include data from the satellites, including: SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field Sensor), Jason-1, GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and SeaWinds. These exhibits are located in the mall area in front of the J.C. Penny store.

For more on the exhibits on display at Annapolis Mall, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020405volvoocean1.html