All language subtitles for The.New.Frontier.S03E10.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ISA_track3_[eng]

(eerie electronic music)

- [Narrator] We have
been observing our home

for 40 years now; in the last 20 of those

we have focused intensely on Planet Earth,

with new technologies and capabilities

accumulating a massive
data that is now revealing

a complex and ever-changing living planet.

(dramatic fusion music)

(eerie futuristic music)

They've been watching us from space,

for the last two decades
in high-resolution detail,

watching our every move.

Clouds and aerosols, winds and hurricanes,

forests and cities, droughts and floods,

the ocean currents and plankton,

life in the ocean and on land.

Land cover.

Aerosols.

Chlorophyll concentrations.

Wave heights.

Ozone concentrations.

Atmospheric moisture.

The human footprint.

Sea-level change.

And temperatures and moisture in the soil.

Now scientists have a
high-definition dataset

spanning two decades to
study and to learn from.

- NASA has a fleet of satellites

that are always measuring Earth.

They're looking at land, oceans,

atmospheres, ice, altogether.

The particular visualization
represents the measurement

of all life on Earth over 20 years.

I personally find it mesmerizing.

You're watching the Earth breathe here.

The seasons are changing.

Ice is coming in, and retreating.

You can see the forests on land in green

expanding and contracting.

Can see the deserts moving to the ocean.

You can see biological deserts
in the centers of the ocean,

represented by blues and purples.

And then, as you look further
north in the Atlantic,

or towards Antarctica, you can
see these greens and yellows.

Explosion of life in the ocean

just like on land in
the spring and summer.

Incredible.

- What we see for the first time

is how the oceans and the
land behave at the same time,

through time, for 20 years.

We've never had data like these before.

Half of our photosynthesis
occurs in the oceans

and the other half on land.

Having these data to show
both at the same time,

day after day, month after month,

year after year for 20 years,

is a great tool to study life on Earth.

NASA has observed many aspects

of the coupled
land-ocean-atmosphere system

and how they interact.

For example, we see that with
warmer surface temperatures,

the growing season is getting longer

at higher northern latitudes,
and spring is coming earlier.

With satellite data we're able to map this

continuously across the Earth's surface

and across the United
States and across Alaska.

Before that time, you had to rely

where you had weather stations,

and so you had points here, points there,

but you never had
continuous data like these.

Using these data, we can
look over very large areas,

and see regional effects.

Sometimes these effects are positive,

and nothing bad has happened.

It's only with these data
we're able to do this

over all these areas at the same time,

and this is made possible
by the use of Earth-viewing

satellites, which orbit
the Earth day after day,

month after month, year after year.

These data are the basis for
saying these things about Earth

with confidence because we measure them.

- [Jeremy] The view from
space is opened our eyes

to so many different things.

You can see transitions
from La Nina to El Nino,

represented by huge blooms of
life across the Pacific Ocean

at the Equator, bigger and
wider than the United States.

You can see greening of the Arctic.

You can see earlier
summers, later winters,

and you can see the emergence
of harmful nuisance algae.

(aural music)

- [Narrator] Charting the
carbon-dioxide cycle through

the atmosphere, land,
and ocean is essential

to understanding the environmental changes

that man is driving.

Higher carbon dioxide, or
CO2, in the Earth's atmosphere

appears as red and yellow,

while lower-than-average
CO2 is shown as blue.

The pulsing of the data is due to

the day-night cycle of
plant photosynthesis.

As CO2 is lifted away from the surface,

it is rapidly spread around the world

by high-altitude winds.

CO2 builds up in the
Northern-Hemisphere winter,

when plants are dormant.

By summer, photosynthesis
draws massive amounts

of CO2 out of the atmosphere,

resulting in lower CO2 throughout
the Northern Hemisphere.

The growth and decay of
vegetation in the northern lands

causes the seasonal
change in atmospheric CO2.

Longterm, however, it is human activity

that is increasing overall CO2 levels.

- 2017 was the second-warmest
year ever recorded,

and the warmest non-El-Nino year.

That makes five of the warmest years

ever recorded just since 2010.

NASA scientists have
taken weather-station data

from over 6,000 stations,
and we've connected the dots

to understand how our Earth is changing.

In this.

Growing as we look at how much

high latitudes in places like
Alaska have warmed since 1950.

So, across the globe we're
seeing a consistent trend

towards warming but with
twice as much warming

across the high latitudes like Alaska.

(aural music)

- [Narrator] This rapid increase

in overall global temperatures
is clearly defined

when satellite data is added to the model.

- The ability to expand
your senses into space,

compress time, watch
visualizations like these,

see how the ecosystems of
land, ocean, atmosphere,

ice, all interact, and
then be able to rewind it,

and watch it again and again,

it's, yeah, it's amazing.

(dramatic fusion music)

(somber aural music)

- [Narrator] Ask any astronaut.

When they look down at Earth,
they see a single environment.

No borders, no plains,

just a single planet which
we all have to rely on.

With this data, scientists can check up

on the health of the plant.

One primary concern is the Ozone Layer.

- We know the Montreal
Protocol was a huge success.

This was signed in late 1980s,

when scientists and policymakers
from around the world

gathered together to try
to save the Ozone Layer.

- The chemicals they regulated persist

in the atmosphere for many decades.

They thin the Ozone Layer,

and they create a seasonal
hole over Antarctica.

They basically take away
part of our planet's

natural sunscreen, and
that increases the risk

of skin cancer and damage to plants.

- [Narrator] Scientists have
projected the ozone hole

will disappear almost completely by 2075.

But several factors
could delay that outcome.

- There're some industrial compounds

that did not banned by
the Montreal Protocol,

but as they enter the atmosphere,

they will also hurt the Ozone Layer.

- But the unregulated
compounds have a short lifespan

in the atmosphere, unlike
the chlorofluorocarbons

that were originally regulated.

So they have a short-lived
impact on ozone,

and we don't think they'll delay recovery

by more than a few years.

- We've projected, by 2050 more than half

of the ozone-depleting
compounds in the atmosphere

will come from long-lived
substances banned by the protocol.

- [Narrator] Because these
compounds stay in the air

for such a long time,

compared to the unregulated
short-lived compounds,

they will have a disproportionate

and lingering impact on ozone.

Any noncompliance with protocol

can have significant consequences.

- The really big uncertainty
in Ozone-Layer recovery

is climate change.

There're many naturally-produced
ozone-depleting substances

that're emitted by the oceans,

and as the oceans continue
to warm due to climate change

those emissions will increase,

and that will further
delay ozone recovery.

- [Narrator] Scientists
want to understand better

how climate change will
affect ozone recovery.

- This is a hard problem.

As a scientific community,

we need to work on this major issue.

We now have a powerful new
tool to simulate atmosphere

and its interaction with land
and ocean to study this issue,

and that's what we're going to do.

- [Narrator] At the top
of the world, however,

the arctic ice continues to shrink.

(concerned aural music)

- Sea ice is the ice that grows

and melts within the Arctic Ocean.

It grows in the wintertime
when it gets cold,

and melts during through the summertime.

It doesn't raise sea level
but it's very important

for the global climate system
because the ice is very bright

and reflective, reflects
a lotta the Sun's energy

that comes in during the summertime

and helps keep the Arctic cooler.

It's like a refrigerator for
the global climate system,

by keeping the globe cooler

than it normally would be without sea ice.

As we lose the ice,

it's like we're opening
the refrigerator door,

and not cooling things as
efficiently as we used to.

- [Narrator] Constant
observation since the '70s

lets us see a trend.

- The Arctic sea ice has
been changing quite rapidly.

We've seen a decline over
35-plus years of our record.

The last 15 years, particularly,
it's been accelerating.

So, really, it's become a matter of when,

not if we lose the Arctic sea ice,

because we have a lotta
warmth in the Arctic,

it's gonna continue to warm,

we're gonna continue to melt sea ice.

There's uncertainty as to
exactly when that will happen,

but sometime in the
not-too-distant future,

faster than we used to
think, the Arctic Ocean

will be substantially
ice-free by the end of summer.

Arctic sea ice is not the only place

we're seeing big changes.

We're also seeing big
changes in Greenland,

which is the big massive
ice on top of the continent,

and we're seeing more and more melt,

we're seeing ice calving off as icebergs.

We're seeing big masses of ice loss

over the last several years.

That means that that ice
is going into the ocean,

that's raising sea level.

That's gonna have big
impacts down the road

as we continue to lose more
and more ice from Greenland.

(concerned aural music)

- [Narrator] Ancient air
bubbles trapped in ice

enable us to step back in
time, and see what Earth's

atmosphere and climate were
like in the distant past.

Today we stand on the
threshold of a new geologic era

which some term the
Anthropocene, where the climate

is very different to the
one our ancestors knew.

- We can see that a warmer world means

that there's an impact
for warming temperatures

in the Arctic, melting sea ice.

That sea ice leads to
larger sea-level rise.

NASA scientists are on
the ground, in airplanes,

and using our satellite data
to understand how what starts

in the Arctic doesn't
exactly stay in the Arctic.

(dramatic fusion music)

- [Narrator] The hope is
that all this data collection

will mean that real-world
problems can be reassessed

and new angles explored.

A case in point: dolphin
and whale stranding.

Could this accumulated satellite data

help address the problem?

Cape Cod in the US State of Massachusetts

is home to one of the most
frequent marine-mammal

stranding sites in the world.

- If we can get there quickly,
and provide supportive care,

they have a much better
prognoses in terms of survival.

- [Narrator] Scientists
know very little about why

these mammals strand, and only a quick

and efficient response in
these events will save lives.

Katie Muir works on the frontline,

and has fine-tuned rescue efforts.

- If we can develop an
algorithm that pieces together

the different variables that
may be causing mass strandings

or driving mass strandings,

then we have the ability
to then prevent them.

We can have teams that
are out on the shore

looking for animals in those hotspots,

knowing that all those
variables have come together

and this is a likely point in time

where we're likely to see it.

But we can also have
teams ready to respond

so that if they do strand,
we're there that much faster,

and more animals will survive the event.

- [Narrator] Marine biologists from

the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

were also looking at this problem.

- For the large proportion
of these strandings,

the animals are across the
ages, in pretty good health,

and there's no really immediate evidence

as to why they actually strand.

- [Narrator] One possibility
is geomagnetic perception:

the ability to navigate
using Earth's magnetic field,

which is believed to be
used by marine mammals.

Could changes in the magnetic
field confuse the animal?

Geomagnetic pulses or storms
can be caused by space weather.

- Geomagnetic perception
is one of the theories.

I thought: "Well, hmm, if a
magnetometer can pick it up,

"maybe the animals
actually can pick it up."

- [Narrator] Dr. Reeb consulted with NASA

at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

- [Scientist] The coolest
thing was that we realized

that nobody had really
taken a cold hard data

science analysis look at the problems.

- What we're trying to look at here

was if there was a potential
driver or relationship

or correlation between the
occurrence of mass strandings

and any solar activity.

- The data that we have
correlated, or analyzed so far

is information about the
local geomagnetic conditions.

We have long data records
from geophysical observatories

of the local geomagnetic-field variations

and marine-mammal stranding.

- [Narrator] Their
analysis was inconclusive.

They needed more data from
other environmental conditions.

- Easy-fix correlation
between a geomagnetic pulse

and, ooh, a stranding, doesn't
seem to be very evident,

but what it does show is that
there are multiple variables

involved in this equation and
that the geomagnetic storms

could just be one very small
part of it, significant still.

But, it looks like there
are multiple oceanographic

and environmental elements.

- [Narrator] With more data in hand,

it was time to expand the team.

They recruited statisticians
and the expertise

of NASA Earth-science data analyst

and oceanographer Erdem Karakoylu.

- A dataset, no matter
its shape or content,

always has a story to tell.

Trying to figure out how
different data are connected,

I think, require a wide
diversity of skills

and background knowledge.

- For example, I'll be explaining

how a mass stranding occurs
and how we respond to try

and understand why I'm presenting
the data in a certain way,

and my colleagues from
NASA will look at me,

and ask questions that
wouldn't think to ask

because I take for
granted my understanding,

and they're coming at it
from a totally new angle

with no background.

- [Narrator] These datasets
may reveal a pattern,

allowing scientists to
predict the likelihood

and location of mass
stranding before it happens.

- We've really sort of
slowly peeled the first layer

of this onion back, and I
think that there's so many

more layers that still need
to be addressed and looked it.

I hope that we can actually
find additional collaborators,

additional funding partners
to really bring all the data

that's really available
to really give this

the study and the
scrutiny that it deserves.

- We are also going other
make all these datasets

available to the entire
scientific community

so that we can utilize the
entire scientific community,

attack, and a new
approach to this problem.

- I think that there will be other things

to take and run with, get new
ideas, maybe add more data.

I'm hoping also there will be a model

for how projects can then be
opened to the wider public.

(emotional music)

- The ability to release animals

after they've stranded is tremendous.

When we do that, that's the
best feeling in the world

after all of that hard work.

- Those questions that seem unanswerable,

if you give them time
and support and effort

and put people on them,
we can do amazing things.

(emotional piano music)

(dramatic fusion music)

- [Narrator] Data from satellites reveals

the interconnection
between air, sea, and land.

This is a visualization of three aerosols:

dust, smoke, and sea salt.

The CALIPSO-Satellite data reveals in 3D

how dust from the arid Sahara Desert

is lifted by the winds
each year, and transported

nearly 5,000 kilometers
across the Atlantic Ocean.

(pensive music)

Some of it settles in the Amazon Basin,

the largest rainforest on the planet.

Sahara dust contains phosphorus,

an important nutrient for plants.

CALIPSO shows that, on average,

182 million tons of dust
leaves Africa each year.

When the Sahel was dry, the dust transport

to the Amazon in the
next year would increase;

when it was wet, dust
transport would decrease.

We can now track global
precipitation, wind currents,

cloud cover, and ocean temperature.

Satellites have detected
a shift in phytoplankton

populations across the planet's
five great ocean basins,

showing the expansion of biological desert

where little life thrives.

Diatoms are one of the most abundant types

of marine phytoplankton, but
a new 15-year-long NASA study

reveals global populations have declined.

Diatoms, like all
phytoplankton, have chlorophyll,

the same photosynthesizing
pigment as plants.

They occupy the surface of the ocean,

where they harvest light from the Sun.

In large numbers, diatoms
form colorful swirling blooms

that can be seen from space.

According to the study,

significant decreases in
populations, shown here in red,

are mainly in the Northern Hemisphere.

- Diatoms rely on nutrients
such as nitrate, silicate,

and iron to reach the surface
layer where they live.

What the study shows is
that the availability

of these nutrients has changed

due to the Wave Cycle
within the water column.

- [Narrator] Diatoms occupy
the surface area of the ocean

called the Mixed Layer.

Nutrients collect on the ocean floor,

and are cycled up to this layer.

Various physical forces
can cause the depth

of the mixed layer to become shallower

so that fewer nutrients reach the diatoms.

Without these, their populations decline.

This map shows areas on the globe

where the depth of the
Mixed Layer shallowed.

- It's hard to pinpoint exactly

why these change have happen.

Things like wind, circulation,
and temperature can affect

the way these nutrients are
brought to the surface layer.

We hope a longer study
can yield more information

on whether these changes are, in fact,

a trend or variability.

(majestic orchestral fusion music)

- [Narrator] Next-generation satellites

are reaching orbit now to
continue this important work.

They will collect data,
maintain observation continuity,

and allow scientists to track

the changes in our environment.

They can then model dynamic simulations

to better understand this unique planet

and the myriad of
lifeforms that rely on it.

(majestic orchestral fusion music)

(dramatic fusion music)