NASA’s Earth Information Center at NMNH Visual Description Tour

About the Exhibit

Welcome to NASA’s Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In this gallery, you can learn about how scientists at both NASA and the Smithsonian collect and analyze data about Earth systems. They do this to better understand how our planet works and how it is changing, mainly due to human activities.

The exhibition is located on the second floor of the museum and primarily features scientific visualizations of global data collected by NASA satellites. It also contains graphic panels, a few interactive elements, and a model of one of NASA’s satellites.

Accessibility features in this exhibition include assisted listening devices, which are available at the visitor information desk on the Ground Floor in the Evans Gallery.

About the Tour

This visual description tour was developed to make the exhibition’s key messages, images, and objects more accessible to visitors who are blind or have low vision. The tour begins at the entrance from the north hallway on the second floor, just off the stairs to the Constitution Avenue lobby. There is only one entrance to this gallery.

This tour divides the exhibit gallery into five thematic sections corresponding to the four walls of the gallery plus a central wall placed in the middle of the room. Each thematic section includes a brief description of the space, a summary of the content, and detailed descriptions of key images, objects, or interactive elements in that section. You can follow the tour linearly as it takes you through each section or skip from section to section in whatever order you choose.

Let’s begin our tour starting at the entrance. You are standing at the west end of a large room, about 58 feet long and 32 feet wide. About 10 feet inside, a wall just under 6 feet tall juts out perpendicular to the entrance forcing visitors to turn to the right to progress further into the room. The top half of the wall is transparent with a stylized abstract pattern suggesting a topographic map accompanied by the words “Experience our changing planet. Earth Information Center” – all in an etched glass effect. This wall forces you to turn to the right to step fully into the hall.

From where you are standing to the right of the entrance, the walls on three sides of the hall are filled with vibrant images and explanatory text. In the center of the gallery, a high wall cuts the room into a front half and back half with space on either end to approach a series of benches in front of the LED wall. At the far end of the hall, a 12-feet-tall by 30-feet-long, high-resolution LED wall dominates the room—both spatially and with its brightly colored scientific visualizations of data collected from NASA satellites and a rotation of short videos.

Text on the wall just to the left of the entrance introduces the exhibition’s main messages. It reads: “Core to the research of both the Smithsonian and NASA is on-going learning and discovery about how our planet works. Whether collected from high in Earth’s orbit or on the ground, data from NASA and the Smithsonian helps us understand and respond to climate change and other human activities that are reshaping our planet.”

Follow the wall to the right of the entrance and walk along the wall until you reach a large photograph of the planet Earth.

The first section of our tour features three panels of text that explore the living Earth as a system of processes.  

Before we dive into detailed descriptions, let’s get an overview of this wall.

Framing the three panels is an almost 8-feet-high background image of a tree canopy from the perspective of someone looking up from below. The sun shines through openings in the canopy lighting up the entire image in various vivid shades of green and silhouetting the dark gray and brown tree trunks and branches.

The three panels from right to left are titled: Making Information Available to All, The Earth is Alive, and The Systems that Make Earth Work.

The panel titled “Making Information Available to All” is black with blue header, white text, and the logos from the six federal agencies that are founding partners to the Earth Information Center. At the bottom of the panel is a QR code linking to the Earth Information Center’s website at earth dot gov.

The central panel on this wall is titled “The Earth is Alive.” It has a black background with light text and a large photograph of Earth taken from the Apollo 13 spacecraft in 1970. The left half of the planet is illuminated, showing the Pacific Ocean and North America under a layer of white clouds. The right half lies in darkness and is cut off the panel. The text on this panel reads: “Our living planet is made up of dynamic, complex systems and processes that sustain life on Earth.

• Abundant water and carbon are two essential building blocks for life. The water and carbon cycles regulate Earth’s climate and temperature.  
• The atmosphere and magnetic field protect life from harmful radiation from space.  
• The tilt of Earth’s axis as it travels around the Sun gives us the seasons, while its daily rotation is responsible for many weather patterns.

Scientists from NASA and the Smithsonian collect data from satellites, computer models, remote sensing, biological and geological specimens, museum collections, and field studies to understand changes in our planet’s past, present and future.”

The panel furthest left on this wall is titled “The Systems that Make Earth Work.” The main text reads: “Earth consists of five main systems that are interconnected and work together much like the human body's systems do. All of these systems interact to maintain Earth's balance: changes in one can impact all the others.”

In the center of the panel is a graphic illustration of the earth in green and dark blue. This image is surrounded by five photographs and icons representing the five systems discussed on this panel.

Starting from the bottom and going clockwise: the first image is a colorful autumn forest in orange, yellow, and green. The icon is a green leaf in a green circle. The text reads: “Biosphere: all living organisms on Earth from tiny bacteria to huge blue whales.”

The next image is a vibrant orange and red lava flow over dark rocks at night. The icon is a red smoking volcano in a red circle. The text reads: “Geosphere: Earth’s rock, soil, and sand in all their forms — from mountains to lava flows.”

Continuing around the circle, the next image is the calm surface of the ocean in dark and light blues. The icon is a light blue water drop in a light blue circle. The text reads: “Hydrosphere: Earth’s water in all its forms — from rain drops to the deep ocean.”

The next image shows a blue sky with a fluffy white cloud. The icon is a dark blue cloud in a dark blue circle. The text reads: “Atmosphere: all the gaseous layers (or air) that surrounds the planet.”

The final image is a frozen landscape of snow and ice. The icon is a purple snowflake inside a purple circle. The text reads: “Cryosphere: the frozen part of Earth’s water, including glaciers and icebergs.”

You’ve reached the end of this section. The next section continues along the long wall to your left. Follow that wall until you reach the interactive touchscreen.

This next section of the exhibition deals with how people and communities around the world are experiencing and responding to climate change.

There are 12 panels along this approximately 30-foot-long wall. The background is dark gray, almost black, with a lighter gray design that suggests a topographic map. Colorful photographs illustrate each panel of text. Behind the 65-inch interactive touchscreen titled “Hometown Dashboard” is a background image of Svalbard, Norway. Further down the wall is a large, floor-to-ceiling photograph taken from space of North America, Central America, and the northern part of South America.

Headlines for this space include: “Your Neighborhood is Changing,” “How are people experiencing and responding to climate change?”, and “What does climate change look like across the U.S.?”

The introduction panel to this section is titled “Earth is Changing Faster than We’ve Seen Before.” The text reads: “Earth's climate has naturally changed over the past 4.5 billion years, but current changes are unique in two ways: they are happening faster than ever before in human history AND they are the result of human activities since the mid-1800s. When we burn fossil fuels—such as coal, oil, or natural gas—we release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. As CO2 builds up, it acts like a heat-trapping blanket causing the planet to warm and causing widespread and rapid changes in the systems that sustain life on Earth.” The photograph accompanying this text shows a large iceberg with dramatic orange lighting and deep shadows floating in Disko Bay, Greenland.

The photos and stories along this wall detail different ways that people from communities across the United States and around the world are experiencing climate change and what they are doing to adapt to those impacts.

To continue this tour, stand in front of the touchscreen kiosk.

The text above this large touchscreen reads: “Your Neighborhood is Changing. Climate change is happening everywhere… but it looks and feels different depending on where you live. How are you experiencing these changes in your hometown?”

The home screen shows a large map of the world with major cities captioned. In the center may appear the title “Discover your Hometown Dashboard” with hyperlinked text saying “Tap to get started.” The map displays different colors indicating either the monthly precipitation (also known as rainfall and snowfall) or the monthly temperature. In the lower right corner is a menu where you can toggle between displaying precipitation and temperature, and between metric and Imperial standard measurement units. Selecting monthly precipitation displays a color scale that goes from light tan for low precipitation to dark blue for high precipitation. When monthly temperature is selected the color scale goes from dark blue for low temperatures to dark red for high temperatures.

This interactive allows you scroll and move over the map of the world to find the city closest to your hometown. The names of the cities are in the majority language spoken in that area of the world. When you select a city, a new screen appears that displays a large graph of historical data for the past and model data for the future. The historical data is represented in white. Model data is represented in green, yellow, orange, and red. On the left side of the screen, there are four buttons in the same colors, each representing a different future scenario: green for a future with low carbon emissions, yellow for intermediate emissions, orange for high emissions, and red for a future with very high emissions. Selecting one of these four buttons shows how different levels of future carbon emissions will affect the precipitation and temperature patterns in your hometown.

To go back to the world map, touch the “back” button in the upper left corner of the screen.

To continue this tour, move to your left along the wall until you reach the header text that reads, “How are people experiencing and responding to climate change?”

Four photos with accompanying text tell the stories of different ways that communities experience and respond to climate change. This part of the tour will describe each of these four stories in detail, starting with the one on the top left.

The photograph shows a racially diverse group of people wearing light winter coats standing around a newly planted tree in a neighborhood park in Brooklyn, New York. Several of them hold shovels that they are using to cover the root ball of the tree with soil. The text reads: “Rising Global Temperature. Carbon dioxide emissions are the main cause for the recent warming of Earth's surface. Much of this warming has happened since the 1980s, with the ten most recent years being the hottest on record. Human-made structures like buildings, roads, and infrastructure trap heat. This intensifies heat waves in cities, causing more heat-related illnesses, worse air quality, and increased energy demand. Cities are addressing these impacts by increasing green spaces and tree cover, using light-colored building materials, and creating more shaded public areas.”

The photograph immediately to the right is an aerial view of the coastline of Barataria Bay in Louisiana. The land near the coast is dark tan and lighter plumes of soil can be seen washing out into the turquoise and dark blue waters of the bay. The text reads: “Sea Level Rise. Global sea level has risen about 4 inches (10 cm) since 1993. The rate of increase has more than doubled from 0.07 in. (0.18 cm) per year in 1993 to 0.17 in. (0.42 cm) per year in 2023. Sea level rise poses big problems for low-lying coastal areas, such as New Orleans. These locations are more vulnerable to floods that damage buildings and vital infrastructure. To protect these areas, investments are being made to relocate facilities to higher elevations, restore wetlands and coastal areas, and modify land use policies.”

The photo below depicts an Indigenous man in the Arctic dressed in heavy winter clothes made of fur and leather. He is holding a spear and jumping from one part of the sea ice that fills the image to another. Small areas of liquid water crisscross the expanse of ice. The text reads: “Decreased Arctic Sea Ice. In the past four decades, the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice left at the end of the summer has shrunk. This melting of sea ice affects global weather patterns, sea level rise, food security, and wildlife. Indigenous communities in the Arctic depend on large areas of thick, stable sea ice from which they hunt seals, walruses, and other marine mammals. Without enough sea ice, these longtime staples of their diet become increasingly inaccessible. Limiting greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously working with Arctic communities on resiliency plans will help to lessen these impacts.”

The last image is in the lower left of the four. This is another aerial photograph of a forest fire in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from February 2024. A plume of white smoke drifts downward from the middle of the image in a section of green forest and expands to cover the lower left quarter of the photograph. Areas of light brown in the upper part of the image represents higher, unforested areas. The text reads: “Increased Wildfires. Fire has always been a natural part of a forest's life and can create more resilience by clearing out brush to reduce future fire risk. But extreme temperatures worsen droughts, dry out vegetation, lengthen fire seasons, and intensify winds—all of which promote more frequent, severe, and dangerous wildfires. Areas where human development spreads into undeveloped wildlands or forests are particularly vulnerable to wildfires. For these areas, forest management, improved fire prediction modeling, early detection, and community preparedness can lessen wildfire damage and save lives.”

You’ve reached the end of this section of the tour. The next section features the 30-feet-long LED digital wall, also known as the “hyperwall.” Turn 90 degrees to your left and find the rows of benches that are now to the left in front of you. Take a seat and continue with the tour. 

This next section of the exhibition features animated visualizations of large, global data sets collected by NASA satellites, as well as two short videos with audio narration about biodiversity and greenhouse gases. The content of this wall does periodically change.

A series of colorful dashboards, animated visualizations, and 2 short, narrated movies are projected onto a high-resolution LED wall that measures 12-feet-tall by 30-feet-long. This program repeats every 27 minutes and tells the story about what is happening on our planet.

This stop will give you a high-level outline of each segment and the content covered. Together, these segments demonstrate the vast amounts of data that NASA satellite missions collect about the Earth as a living, dynamic, changing system. Scientists use this data to help communities and policy makers respond to our changing planet.

The first segment is a dashboard called “Earth Now.” On the right is an image of the Earth from space showing where NASA ‘s Earth-observing satellites are currently located. In the central area, data from these satellites are displayed over maps of the Earth. These include data about global precipitation, surface temperatures, polar sea ice concentrations, active fires, weather patterns, and air quality. In the upper right corner of the screen is an image of the day taken from one of the satellites. In the lower right corner are some “vital signs,” such as increases in global temperatures, sea level, carbon dioxide, and methane.

Next, a large globe fills the entire wall before we pan out to see a 3D view of an “atmospheric river” from an Earth system model. Swarms of light white arrows move over the Pacific Ocean representing atmospheric currents, while other white curvy lines mark areas of high and low pressure.

Next up is a narrated video about two efforts to improve biodiversity in Africa. The first featured project involves the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. This project works with local partners in Chad to reintroduce and monitor the endangered scimitar-horned oryx. The second part of the video discusses the efforts of the Jane Goodall Institute, NASA, and local organizations in Tanzania to monitor the ecosystem health of Gombe National Park and the threats of human behavior that affect chimpanzees and their natural habitats.

After the video, an image of the Earth against the darkness of space appears, showing us a global view of forest height data collected by the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument aboard the International Space Station. Areas that are brown and dark green represent shorter vegetation. Bright green and white represent taller vegetation. Blue represents the oceans and other bodies of water.

Another dashboard comes onscreen, this one titled “Climate Vital Signs.” On the left side of the wall is a series of graphs that show how the atmospheric concentrations of gasses that cause global warming, such carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, are increasing. In the center of the screen, a series of graphs and maps of the planet display temperature data between 1880 and 2022, showing how temperatures across the planet have been rising.  Under this map are statistics about changes in global temperature, sea level, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice, carbon dioxide, methane, ice sheets, and ocean warming. On the right side of the wall, views of the north and south poles show how sea ice varies seasonally but has been decreasing over time.

Next, a map of the planet fills the entire wall. The landmasses are gray, but the oceans are filled with a kaleidoscope of colors and movement. The lines and movement show ocean surface current flows, while the colors correspond to ocean surface temperature data with warmer water shown in red and orange at the equator and cooler water shown in blues and purple closer to the poles.

Next up is a second narrated video about the work of the Smithsonian’s Forest Global Earth Observatory and NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamic Investigation mission. Scientists in these 2 project measure and monitor forest cover and biomass around the world to better understand how and where carbon emissions are being absorbed out of the atmosphere.  

After the video comes another dashboard with even more information about greenhouse gases. On the far left side of the screen a series of maps and graphs chart the changes in carbon dioxide across the globe. In the center of the wall, two large globes show areas of greater and lesser concentrations of carbon dioxide in orange on the left center screen and methane in purple on the right center screen. On the right of the wall, additional graphs and maps show how different greenhouse gases contribute to rising temperatures and how methane emissions differ over time and around the world.

This is replaced on the screen by a large globe in gray with tan and orange colors swirling like smoke, which represents carbon dioxide emitted into Earth’s atmosphere and driven by wind patterns and atmospheric circulation. The pulsing red and orange spots represent wildfires that flare up during the day and die back a bit at night.

A new dashboard titled “Carbon Dioxide: Sources and Sinks” shows how NASA models the flow of carbon dioxide, its emission and transport around the globe, and its absorption by the ocean and biosphere. In the center of the wall are three views of the planet Earth with different colors swirling over different areas of the globe: the Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia. The Northern Hemisphere of all three is enveloped in a light to dark coffee-colored cloud, representing fossil fuel emissions, which then flows southward to cover the planet in all three views. A light layer of red represents carbon emissions from the burning of forests. The flashing green color represents carbon being absorbed by plants on various landmasses.

Next, a dashboard showing locations across the United States and Canada currently experiencing wildfires, before a timelapse visualization shows how wildfires in northern California spread from mid-July through October 2021. Red points show the locations of active fires over a green and tan topographic landscape. Yellow and orange outlines track the position of active fire lines, while the gray region shows the estimated total burn area. A graph on the right shows the burned area over time in square kilometers.

Next, a dashboard displays multiple visualizations and maps of NASA’s disaster monitoring and response efforts around the world, including active fires and volcanoes, earthquakes, landslide hazards, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and destructive winds.

The last image shows the Earth at night against the darkness of space. A line representing the International Space Station moves diagonally across the globe showing its path and the area of the globe that it observes. Bright yellow points light up in that path to indicate lightning events that were observed by the space station between January 2017 and July 2023. Most lightning strikes happen over land rather than the ocean.

You’ve reached the end of this part of the tour. The next section continues behind you in the center of the gallery. Turn your back to the hyperwall and approach the wall in the center of the gallery.

This next section of the exhibition describes the four sides of the free-standing wall in the center of the gallery.

The side facing the hyperwall displays a large background image of the iconic Earthrise photo taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The barren gray landscape of the moon is in the lower part of the photo with the vibrant blue and white globe of Earth framed against the black expanse of space. A quote by American astronomer Carl Sagan reads “Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Moving around the wall to your left, there are two text-only panels on the short end. The first reads: “Human activities are changing our Earth’s climate and systems. How have you personally experienced these changes? How has your local environment or community been impacted? What do you imagine a sustainable and resilient future for our planet could look like? How will you and your communities adapt?”

The second panel explains the difference between weather and climate. It reads: “Weather is the local change in the atmosphere—such as rain, snow, clouds, a heatwave, winds, or storms—that we see around us every day. Changes in weather happen in minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Climate refers to regional or global patterns of weather. Changes in climate occur over many years or decades.”

Continue around the corner of the wall to your left. On the long side are three vertical monitors showcasing large satellite images from around the globe. As people move in front of the monitors, light blue silhouettes with neon green outlines appear that move as the people do. Within the silhouettes, the satellite images change to show what the land looks like after human impact. Above you, a scale model of a satellite hangs from the ceiling.

Stepping around the corner to your left again, the last wall features a graphic titled “Seeing Beyond a Bird’s-eye View” that illustrates different methods that NASA uses to collect data about the Earth.

Hanging approximately 10 feet from the floor is a model of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (or SWOT) satellite one-twelfth the size of the actual satellite.  From below the model looks like a rectangular box covered in gold foil. Thin gold-covered arms extend from the front and back. Two large dark rectangles extend from the left and right sides – these are the solar panels which power the data collection instruments onboard the satellite.

The actual satellite was launched in 2022 and is the first global survey of Earth’s surface water in the ocean and on land. It observes the fine details of the ocean’s surface and measures how inland water bodies change over time. The SWOT mission was jointly developed by NASA and France’s Centre national d’etudes spatiales, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and United Kingdom Space Agency. 

Along the middle of this short wall is a column of gray silhouettes representing different ways that NASA collects data on a variety of scales at different altitudes (or heights) above the planet.  

Traveling over the planet at approximately 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) is a satellite with five rectangular solar panels attached to one side of the main body by a triangular shape. It represents those geosynchronous orbital satellites that are synced with Earth’s spin to provide continuous observation of specific regions.

Just below that is another smaller satellite silhouette with a rectangular body with a wider bottom end and flanked by two rectangular solar panels. This represents Low Earth Orbit satellites that travel below 1200 miles (2000 kilometers), following specific paths around the Earth. These can follow either a polar orbit circling the Earth from pole to pole and providing global coverage twice daily or a sun-synchronous orbit that passes over the same spots at the same local time daily.

Next down is a silhouette of the International Space Station with sixteen long, thin rectangles representing the solar panels attached to a central axis and flanking the central living and working areas for astronauts. At approximately 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet’s surface, the International Space Station provides a unique viewpoint, passing over approximately 90% of Earth’s population.

At approximately 15 to 25 miles or 25 to 40 kilometers above Earth, large balloons deployed by NASA carry scientific payloads of up to 8,000 lbs. (or 3600 kilograms) for days to weeks.

Slightly below and to the left of the balloon silhouette are the silhouettes of two airplanes. These aircraft and uncrewed aerial vehicles fly between 3280 feet and 8.5 miles (which is between 1 and 14 kilometers) in the air and are used for satellite calibration, sensor testing, and high-resolution data collection.  

Two silhouettes of a satellite dish and telescope represent the ground systems that control satellites, retrieve and process data, and distribute products using antennas and networks. These systems calibrate space observations, collecting continuous data between satellite passes.  

And finally, the silhouette of a ship on the water and a floating tide gauge represent the ships, floats, and gauges that NASA uses to monitor changes in the ocean and their connections to changes in the atmosphere and on land. Ships are used during field campaigns to collect samples and to validate satellite observations.  

You’ve reached the end of this section. If you are facing the Seeing Beyond a Bird’s-eye View graphic, the next section continues along the wall behind you.

This next section of the exhibition explores how scientists from both NASA and the Smithsonian collect and analyze data from a variety of sources to better understand our planet and how it is changing.

There are 10 panels along this approximately 30-feet long wall. The background is dark gray, almost black, with a lighter gray design that suggests a topographic map, similar to the wall on the opposite side of the gallery. Colorful photographs illustrate each panel of text. In front and slightly to the left of you is a 65-inch interactive touchscreen titled “Eyes on Earth.” Covering the wall behind the touchscreen is satellite image of a volcanic eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, taken by Landsat 9 on February 10, 2024. The natural reds and oranges of the lava flow are overlaid with additional vivid colors to represent infrared observations to stand out more starkly against the white and gray of the snow and ice covering the landscape. Further down the wall to your right is a large grayscale map of the world with colorful lines from red near the equator to purple in the Arctic and Antarctica showing the ocean currents and temperatures across the globe.

Headlines for this space include: “Observing Change in the Collections,” “Observing Change in the Field,” “What You Can See from Space,” “How Satellites Collect Data About Earth,” “Observing Change from Space,” and “Patterns at a Glance.”

The introduction panel to this section is titled “Observing Changes on Our Planet.” The text reads: “From the global scale to the microscopic, from the planet’s surface to high orbits, scientists are collecting data that reveal the wonders of Earth—its life, its climate, and the complex ways that it is always changing. Earth-orbiting satellites and other instruments help scientists see the big picture, providing regional and global insights about our planet. Natural history scientists look for evidence of change over time by analyzing ice cores, sedimentary rocks, and biological specimens found in the field and housed in museums.” There are two photographs on this panel below the text.  

The photo on the left shows three racially diverse women standing behind a waist-high surface, on which rests study skins of a variety of different colorful birds from the collection. The woman in the middle holds a study skin of a bird in her hands. The caption reads, “Researchers in the Feather Identification Lab at the National Museum of Natural History study feathers to identify which bird species are involved in collisions with airplanes. This data can also provide information about changes in bird ranges and migration.”

The photo on the right shows three people dressed in heavy cold-weather gear – coats, gloves, hats, and face masks. One, wearing black and gray, is standing in a rectangular hole cut in the snowpack. Another, wearing black and red, is sitting on a mount of snow writing in an open notebook. The third, wearing blue and black, stands in the background next to a blue sledge containing scientific equipment. The caption reads, “Scientists working with NASA’s SnowEx project make snow depth measurements in Alaska to support the development of possible future satellite instruments to measure snow across the entire planet.”

The photos and stories along this wall detail different ways that scientists from NASA and the Smithsonian study data about the planet, how satellites collect that data, and lastly the importance of scientific visualizations in communicating about that data.

To continue this tour, stand in front of the touchscreen kiosk. 

The text above this large touchscreen reads: “What You Can See from Space. Fly along with NASA’s Earth science missions in real-time. Monitor Earth’s vital signs like carbon dioxide, ozone, and sea level. See satellite imagery of the latest major environmental events, including weather and natural disasters.”

The home screen shows an image of the visible Earth from space—a blue globe with white clouds stretched across its surface. The green and brown areas of continental landmasses come into view as you use your fingers to move the position of the globe. Encircling the planet are colored lines of green, orange, and red—each labeled with the name of a NASA mission.  

There are three ways to access the content of the interactive from the home screen. You can select one of the NASA missions directly from the image of the globe. You can select from one of the five choices in the navigation in the top right corner of the screen. These options are Home, Vital Signs, Missions, Events, and About.  

You can also select from the navigation along the bottom of the screen to see different types of data collected from NASA satellites juxtaposed over the globe. The selections are: Satellites Now, Visible Earth, Air Temperature, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Chlorophyll, Precipitation, Sea Level, Sea Surface Temperature, Soil Moisture, Ozone, Water Vapor, Water Storage, and Nitrous Oxide.

You can find the title for which view is displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. Next to that title is a small bright blue arrow button. Touching that button opens and closes a text box giving you information about the view displayed.

For example, if you select “Carbon Dioxide” in the bottom navigation, the globe changes to show colors ranging from dark blue through deep red. One satellite remains: OCO-2. Each color indicates a different level of carbon dioxide measured by the OCO-2 mission. A color scale appears just below the globe showing that dark blue on the left indicates a lower concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of approximately 390 to 400 parts per million. The color scale moves up the spectrum to orange going into red, which represents higher concentrations of carbon dioxide of about 420 to 430 parts per million. Touching the text OCO-2 will change the display to show a 3D-animated model of the satellite for this mission. You can get more information about this mission by toggling the bright blue arrow in the lower left next to the name of the mission.

To continue this tour, turn to your right and move to the end of this wall toward the hyperwall.

This panel has two images and some text.  The images show two different views of the global temperature data collected from 1880 through 2022. The upper image shows the side of what is called the “climate spiral” data visualization. The shorter light blue and white lines at the bottom represent the cooler global temperatures from the late 19th century. As you move up the image, the lines become longer and turn first pink and then red, representing how global temperatures have risen steadily over the last 100 years.

The lower image shows a group of young school kids looking at the same “climate spiral” from the top down instead from the side. Each month of data is marked in on a circular radial graph. As temperatures increase, they are plotted further from the center, giving the whole visualization a funnel shape when viewed from the side.

The text on the panel reads: “Data visualizations can help us see and understand patterns in the data quickly. In the “climate spiral” visualization below, each year of temperature data is added as a new ring. The light blue and smaller diameter years represent cooler temperatures. The red and larger diameter represents warmer temperatures. What has happened with Earth’s global temperatures in the past 40 years?”

Over the last four years on the graph, the temperature has crossed into a dangerous zone that is colored as bright red. 

This concludes the visual description tour of NASA’s Earth Information Center at the National Museum of Natural History. To reach other exhibits or the exit, you exit the gallery from the same place you entered. This will place you in the North Lobby of the second floor. The museum’s Mall exit is on the first floor, and the Constitution Avenue exit is on the ground floor.

Thank you for visiting the National Museum of Natural History. We hope that you have had an enjoyable and interesting visit with this highlights tour.