2001 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| EARTH IS BECOMING A GREENER GREENHOUSE - THE GROWING SEASON GETS LONGER | G01-067 | 09/04/01 | 00:05:00 | Over the past 21 years, parts of the northern hemisphere have become much greener and the growing season has increased by several days. Researchers using satellite data have confirmed that plant life above 40 degrees north has been growing more vigorously since 1981 due to rising temperatures and buildup of greenhouse gases. These results will appear in the September 2001 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF TERRESTRIAL PLANTS
- Dramatic changes in the timing of both the appearance and fall of leaves are recorded in these two decades of satellite data. The authors report a growing season that is now almost 18 days longer in Eurasia. In North America, the growing season appears to have become 12 days longer. These striking sequences depict an entire year in the life of land-based plants. The green colors indicate areas of vibrant plant life and the yellow indicate regions with little or no live vegetation. Note the pulses of green that correspond to the changing seasons. This sequence was captured by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) onboard the Orbview-2 satellite.
Courtesy: NASA/ORBIMAGE
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| ITEM (2): A LONGER GROWING SEASON - The scientists noted that year to year changes in growth and duration of the growing season of northern vegetation was tightly linked to year to year changes in temperature. The green color in these images depicts lush vegetation. The images were captured by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA's Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites.
Courtesy: NASA/NOAA
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| ITEM (3): GREENING IN THE NORTH - This view of the top of the world shows enhanced plant growth over the last 20 years stretching southward to the 30 degree North latitude line (the circle). The color key represents changes in vegetation lushness of the past 20 years. It ranges from a low increase in the heartiness of vegetation as denoted by the yellow color, to the highest increase in the lushness of plants as denoted by the purple color. Increases in the heartiness of vegetation and the extended growing period can both be attributed to rising temperatures as a result of more greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere.
Courtesy: NASA/Boston University
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