Feel the whirlwind on the shores of the Río de la Plata to the heights of the Indian Ocean set in the musical notes of images from our satellite viewing the earth. For the past 18 months, a scientist and his brother at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have been developing an online program that combines sea color data with music notes. The goal is to provide viewers with an in-depth understanding of the ocean image that Goddard scientists study daily in an effort to understand the complexity of the vast, ever-changing ecosystem.
“We wanted to tell a story to enjoy the interaction of the oceans of the Earth through this sound effect,” said one Goddard creator and scientist Ryan Vandermeulen. “We use music because it attracts and stimulates and connects us to different backgrounds.” Vandermeulen’s “oceanographic symphonic experience” began with a colorful painting of the Río de la Plata. He was impressed by its complexity: beautiful planks spilled on the shore, “crazy and violent storms” followed by the harbor, and a huge pillar that seemed to surround the whole area.
Vandermeulen had an idea – how would this picture sound? “I started by extracting dynamic data from satellite imagery. I looked at the patterns of the red, green, green channels, ”he said. “Obviously, they were not going the same way. “There was something there.
Second Place: Bering Sea
After extracting data from a sea-color image, Vandermeulen sought out ways to combine data with sound. Include Jon Vandemeulen, Vandermeulen’s brother and program coordinator. “So I have a knack for producing digital music because I was passionate about rockstar,” he joked. “And so I decided to help and told him it was not an option, this was a good idea.” After making a mistake on his brother to get the data, Jon created a visual interface that translates the data into music notes.
The program created a color-coded sea image of the Bering Sea, exploring satellite that captured edd or circular water movements. The brothers focused on data from red, green, and green photo channels. “It’s a direct blow. Three light pulls and you can hear when one goes up, the other goes down. You can really feel the agreement, ”said Jon.
Third Place: Coral Sea
Marine color research is helping scientists to better understand phytoplankton and its effects on the Earth’s system. Goddard’s Ocean Ecology Laboratory is dedicated to this. “All the roots of everything we see with our eyes are based on the sensitivity of these red, blue photoreceptors to the photons reflected in everything around us,” said Vandermeulen. “When we look at something, light enters our eyes and stimulates our cone cells. Our brains then interpret the signals from these cells so that we can see the color of what we are thinking. ” At NASA, some satellite observatories have satellites that act as cells in a human cone, sensitive to certain light waves.
With this technology, they can detect the color of the ocean in a range that is beyond human comprehension. “We started to think about the idea of capturing and separating parts of the waves,” Vandermeulen said. “Instead of interpreting this in a picture, what if we could interpret this variation in what is happening – something that could move our brains in a different way.” At Coral Sea, the brothers composed a year-long songbook based on the Aqua-MODIS satellite, released from a 32-day medium-sized chlorophyll a-, a type of chlorophyll used in photosynthesis. The 48 photos collected show all four seasons in Australia.
Fourth place: Indian Ocean, Northwestern Australia
The Indian Ocean off the northwest of Australia also attracted both brothers. “It looks like swirls of coffee creamer,” Jon said. The data contained 31 days of satellite imagery, including the length of most light waves emanating from the ocean surface. “It was something special.” Jon wanted to try something different, so he created a way to limit each day of data. The result was a waltz-inspired song.
For more read: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/hear-sounds-of-the-sea-in-sonifications/
