It’s official. NASA has cloned Vincent Van Gogh, shot him into space, and forced him to create digital animations so that we can visualize the world’s surface ocean currents. That’s the impression I got from this video, anyway.
Actually, this visualization is a result of NASA’s ECCO2 project to study currents and sea ice.
Watch the swirling currents near the equator and the Atlantic “hurricane alley”, see the southern tip of Africa spawn eddies like bubbles in the wind, watch the ocean carve snake-like paths among the islands of the south Pacific and the combating highways along our planet’s tropical centerline. Whatever you do, watch this in 1080 on the largest damn screen you can find! And when you’re done, go watch the 20 minute version!
I think it’s very neat that the study of ocean currents is termed “bathymetry”.
PS: Would a cloned Van Gogh have both ears? If so, would he still cut one off? Nature vs. nurture, folks!