Earth from Space

The video by Nova reveals of how planet appears from space, how sand storms in the Sahara desert can fertilize or have an impact of the Amazon rain forest that is five thousand miles away, how a vast undersea waterfall at Antarctica results in no small feeding zone at the equator, how the warm waters from the east coast of Africa triggers weather catastrophe across the globe, the network of satellites located in space that help in studying the earth, Natural forces that moves the earth, the oceans, continents, atmosphere and the sun as well as their impacts on living things, also the earth, fire, winds and water dynamics that shape life. This paper will try to address each factor on its own as explained in the video.

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Earth from Space

The surface is viewed to be a gorgeous and spherical body from the space which revolves around its axis. It is considered to be a body with diverse activities as well as experiencing constant change. In the earth, there are mighty natural forces that holds things together and enables the day to day activities despite being under control of humans. From space, the surface is seen to contain vast blue waters, large green lands as well as whites resulting from ice and the clouds. Images from the area show the earth to hold its seven continents with most of its parts covered by water bodies which cover around seventy-one percent of the whole surface. It is seen to be a vast system which roles allowed the sun every day and to understand all these and to be able to view the earth from space; scientist devised satellites that are located in space which utilizes high and modern technologies such that they help them see things that human eyes cannot see.

Satellites

There are about one hundred and twenty satellites that keep watch on the earth from space. Most of these satellites are operated from attitudes that range from a few hundred miles above the earth's surface up to twenty-five thousand miles away. Each satellite represents and reveals a different piece of the puzzle since each has rays' detectors that are designed to tell what is hidden from the ability of people to view. They enable the visuality of things that naked human eyes cannot see. They also help to provide information used to reveal visible things. Satellites help scientists in understanding how the earth is changing, why it is changing and its effects on human as well as living things.

The Sun

The primary function of the sun is to warm the earth surface. Everything that moves breathes and lives on the earth are pushed by the sun that is allocated about ninety-three million miles away. NASA's satellite used in studying the effect of the sun on earth is the size of a school bus and views the ground from five hundred miles away, circles the globe fourteen times a day. The satellite has five separate sensors that enable it to see the impacts of the sun on the earth's surface differently. The sensors use an electromagnetic spectrum of different wavelengths that help in revealing how the earth reacts to heat emitted by the sun and contains an instrument known as CERES which detects long and shortwave lengths of light in ultra-violet and infrared with an accuracy of one degree shows the earth in shades of heat from the sun. The sun hits the poles at an oblique angle then the ice and the clouds that are located in these areas reflects the sun rays making them remain cold all along.

Vaporization

Since there is no ice at the equator, the sun hits the earth directly. The heat at this point triggers the weather events across the globe. The sun causes a big catch of fish during the period that it hits the equator directly. The heat causes evaporation of the oceans waters around these regions forming clouds that later on falls back on the earth surface as heavy storms. A satellite known as Aqua is used to monitor the complex interaction between the sunlight and waters since it studies, the hydrological cycle on earth. It measures the temperature of the oceans and the millions of water vapor that is produced by the oceans the water vapor carries with it the heat energy from the sun and after reaching a half a mile up, it releases the heat to form clouds, and the weather drives the clouds ten miles up before causing heavy storms. The heat is estimated to be two hundred times more than the global electricity production at any given moment.

When the clouds have lifted the heat from the vapor, they are caused to spin by the earth's rotation merging to form hurricanes that often appears on the earth surface. In July, New York City receives very high temperatures of heat from the sun, and seven thousand miles away in Mumbai India, the same period, people struggle with very heavy rainfall and also in the same period, the Atacama Desert is usually very dry. These cases are all related and caused by the natural forces of the earth. The warm energy moves around the world towards the poles from the equator, and therefore water vapor connects the life of the planet.

Ice formation

Antarctica is a vast frozen continent which is usually frozen for six months every year with temperature going to less than -100 degrees Celsius. The ice from this part of the planet plays a more significant role in maintaining the global climate and sustaining life in jungles thousands of miles away. Antarctica is 43 degrees colder than the north pole due to winds that circulate the continent throughout causing the waters to move around the continent in jets as a result of the earth rotation. In summer Antarctica is usually half the size of the United States and grows up to the size of Africa in winter due to the formation of ice. During the ice formation, the water freezes forming brine which sinks beneath the ocean, and as winter approaches, the ice formation fastens to the extent that around two hundred billion tons of ice are created each year at the Weddle Sea alone releasing tens of trillions of dense brines in the ocean floor.

Jason is a satellite that is used by scientist to study about the ocean floor and to measure the depth of the oceans and is used to investigate where the tens of trillions of brines released from the ice at Antarctica goes. The brines are released and slowly spread towards the Antarctic continental shelf where it falls in the floors revealed by Jason. It receded gradually in the abyss two miles in the ocean floor and moved or spread out towards the equator and other parts of the continent by the ocean currents that circulate Antarctica. This continent contains the coldest as well as condense waters that cool the seas across the world. After the cold water has moved to the other parts that comprise of warm waters, it pushes the warm waters toward the south at the Antarctica where it is once more cooled, and the circle continues. These cold-water currents usually affect the atmosphere on top as they circulate across the globe hence ensuring a balance in the global climates that sustain the world.

Ocean Floors

The ocean floors also play a more significant role in ensuring life existence on the earth surface through the minerals and nutrients that it provides through different ways such as volcanoes and earthquakes. The floors provide nutrients that are rich for the survival of living things on the earth surface. Chemical reactions that take place between molten rocks and deep ocean waters results into the dissolving of the solid stones from the cracks which contain Sulphur and iron, a requirement for living things. The minerals are used by the deep-sea animals and living creatures before the surplus being circulated to the earth's oceans for thousands of years hence contributing to life existence. This minerals after reaching the surface of the oceans lead to the growth of planktons with the presence of sunlight from the sun and carbon from the air; they can multiply at a fast rate enough to feed the marine life. Over 800,000 tones are produced as a result of the nutrients from the ocean floor that enables the feeding of marine life with the planktons, and the birds and humans can feed of the fish who feed on the planktons hence, they impact the life of birds, humans, and marine.

Minerals

Those planktons that are not consumed within 72 hours die and sinks into the abyss where they take the nutrients back to the ocean floor. The Sahara Desert contains the Bandele depression which was once 6000 years ago believed to contain the world's largest freshwater lake. The basin of the depression comprises the remains of ancient planktons called the diatomite which covers 24,000 square miles of the desert. Diatomite is rich in phosphorous a nutrient that is required by all living things to produce energy. The winds in the desert carry fractures of the diatomite through massive wind storms from the region and taken westwards across Africa and on reaching the coast of Atlantic Ocean, it's taken up high in the sky where it is carried west and south by the strong winds. On arriving at the Amazon where its journey ends, it is dissolved by the clouds and falls as rain to the Amazon rain forest delivering phosphate into the forest which nourishes it. There are other more examples are to how the mountains and other natural resources provide nutrients that enable the survival of living organisms on the earth surfaces by enriching the soils with the minerals.

Oxygen

Oxygen from the atmosphere plays a more significant role in the existence of living things on earth. Humans utilize 21% of the oxygen on the earth surface. During the day plants produce oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, and the opposite process takes place during the nights. Oxygen is provided by the billions of planktons that grow in the oceans across the globe also from the tropical rain forests around the world. The two seems to be the more significant contributions of the oxygen consumed on earth daily.

Lightning

Lightning is also another contributor to life that exists on the earth surface. Forty strikes of lightning occur every second meaning that more than three million attacks of lightning occur every day across the globe. Lightning occurs when water vapor is turned into small ice particles that are absorbed in the clouds which smash each other with water droplets building static electricity and after the charge grows to a point where the air molecules are torn apart, a lightning strike occurs.

When it occurs, it burns the nitrogen and oxygen in the air form nitrate, an essential nutrient to all living things. After the nitrate forms, it is absorbed in the clouds and falls as rain which is incorporated by plants on the earth's surface. After eating the plants, the nutrients get into the bodies of living things which are helpful for growth and development. Lightning causes world fires that help increase decomposition in the forests such that the nutrients contained in the dead plants and animals such as Sulphur and phosphate to get back into the soils for use by other living organisms. World fires are essential to the cycle of life and help maintain the earth ecosystem.