File:NASA - Vital Signs- Taking the Pulse of Our Planet mrnBdcdM4UM.webm

English: Our planet is a beautiful and awesome place. In a new video, join NASA scientists on a 40-minute visual tour of Earth from space, presented at the IMAX Theater at National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on September 10.

“Vital Signs: Taking the Pulse of Our Planet\" was the theme for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center's fifteenth installment of its annual lecture and reception sponsored by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable.

Earth is a complex, dynamic system we do not yet fully understand. Like the human body, the Earth system comprises diverse components that interact in complex ways.

On this global tour, scientists lead the viewer through Earth’s water cycle, forests and frozen regions as seen through the eyes of NASA’s Earth observing satellite fleet. They share a story of how we can make life better today and into the future.

NASA's Earth science program aims to develop a greater understanding of Earth's system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve predictions of climate, weather and natural disasters.

The lecture is given by:

Lennard Fisk, Ph.D Distinguished University Professor of Space Science University of Michigan INTRODUCTION

Gail Skofronick-Jackson, Ph.D Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center THE WATER CYCLE

Thorsten Markus, Ph.D Project Scientist for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center SEA ICE

Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh, Ph.D Principal Investigator, (Eco-Synthetic Aperture Radar) (EcoSAR) NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center LAND AND EARTH

Piers Sellers Deputy Director, Science and Exploration Directorate NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

THE BIG PICTURE