Water Cycle - Precipitation [720p]

Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle.

This animation displays the intensity of precipitation as it flows around the globe, showing heavy precipitation in orange/yellow and light precipitation in purple.

credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio; this is a contribution of the Consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program; the Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC)