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Curated Gallery installationS

Earth in Flux - NISAR Clocks

March 11, 2022
<p>NISAR collects data under every atmospheric condition. With eyes “on” at all times, the steady transformation of Earth’s surface is witnessed without interruption, even in the cloudiest of locations.</p>
Consistency
<p>NISAR circles the Earth in about 100 minutes, taking 12 days to complete the most up-to-date and comprehensive data collection of our planet’s land and ice-covered surfaces. </p>
Coverage
<p>Moving beyond pure science, NISAR delivers data for urgent response, leading to better forecasting and risk assessment of floods, fires, volcanoes, landslides, earthquakes, oil spills, and dam collapses. </p>
Emergency
<p>NISAR’s data differentiates seasonal fluctuations from long-term trends, showing how rapidly, and where, loss of major ice sheets will occur. </p>
Collapse
<p>NISAR measures changes to our coastlines due to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, revealing their impact on sea level now and in the future</p>
Sea Level Rise
<p>NISAR observes the transformation of our ecosystems from forests to farmlands and deserts, indicating how changing climate and land use affect the carbon cycle and species habitat.</p>
Repletion and Depletion
<p data-block-key="3viwx">NISAR observes the stresses from industry, agriculture ,and transportation on Earth’s ecosystems, functions, and services.</p>
Deforestation
<p>NISAR measures deforestation and the subsequent loss of sequestered carbon, which impacts the quality of air that we breath. </p>
Air Quality
<p>NISAR measures land that sinks from natural causes as well as from the over-extraction of resources like groundwater and oil. </p>
Sinkhole
<p>NISAR provides near real-time data of our planet’s solid surface deformation, improving forecasts of large-scale geological hazards in a socially relevant time frame.</p>
Earthquake
<p>NISAR observes the constantly changing state of Earth’s surface…in almost real time. Stare at the red dot for 30 seconds and the colorful faceplate will transform into white.</p>
Earth in Flux
<p>NISAR spots changes to the surface of the Earth to 3 cm of accuracy. That’s like reading the time on this clock from as far away as Albuquerque, NM. </p>
Precision

Earth in Flux

NISAR is distinguished by first-of-a-kind technology that measures Earth’s solid surfaces, cryosphere, and ecosystems with unprecedented coverage, consistency, and precision. It reaches beyond science-driven discovery to include a wide range of humanitarian applications. As the Earth’s surface is constantly in flux, so too are the faces of these clocks, each of which tells the time of a location that illustrates the changes NISAR will observe.

Earth in Flux: The Making of an Art Installation

Credit: NASA/JPL

PRECISION

Albuquerque, NM
NISAR spots changes to the surface of the Earth to 3 cm of accuracy. That’s like reading the time on this clock from as far away as Albuquerque, New Mexico.

clock with black bottom and white top

CONSISTENCY

Faroe Islands
NISAR collects data under every atmospheric condition. With eyes “on” at all times, the steady transformation of Earth’s surface is witnessed without interruption, even in the cloudiest of locations.

Clock with white face, and numbers that go from blurry to crisp

COVERAGE

Antarctica
NISAR circles the Earth in about 100 minutes, taking 12 days to complete the most up-to-date and comprehensive data collection of our planet’s land and ice-covered surfaces.

red face plate

EMERGENCY

Indonesia
Moving beyond pure science, NISAR delivers data for urgent response, leading to better forecasting and risk assessment of floods, fires, volcanoes, landslides, earthquakes, oil spills, and dam collapses.

clock with fractured pieces between 1 and 3

COLLAPSE

Greenland
NISAR’s data differentiates seasonal fluctuations from long-term trends, showing how rapidly, and where, loss of major ice sheets will occur.

Clock with blue water filling inside

SEA LEVEL RISE

India
NISAR measures changes to our coastlines due to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, revealing their impact on sea level now and in the future.

EARTH IN FLUX

clock with green, brown and tan faceplate

REPLETION AND DEPLETION

Amazon Basin
NISAR observes the transformation of our ecosystems from forests to farmlands and deserts, indicating how changing climate and land use affect the carbon cycle and species habitat.

clock with arms cut off

DEFORESTATION

Nigeria
NISAR observes the stresses from industry, agriculture ,and transportation on Earth’s ecosystems, functions, and services.

clock with brown pollution interior

AIR QUALITY

China
NISAR measures deforestation and the subsequent loss of sequestered carbon, which impacts the quality of air that we breathe.

clock with center blue hole

SINKHOLE

Wink, TX
NISAR measures land that sinks from natural causes as well as from the over-extraction of resources like groundwater and oil.

clock with fault line from 10 to 6

EARTHQUAKE

Japan
NISAR provides near real-time data of our planet’s solid surface deformation, improving forecasts of large-scale geological hazards in a socially relevant time frame.

clock with blurry pink blue and yellow faceplate

EARTH IN FLUX

Los Angeles, CA
NISAR observes the constantly changing state of Earth’s surface…in almost real time. Stare at the red dot for 30 seconds and the colorful faceplate will transform into white.