Watch the Gorgeous, Swirling World of Ocean Currents

Yesterday was officially World Oceans Day, but I think we can all agree there’s no bad time to celebrate the big, blue waters that occupy 71 percent of Earth’s surface.

A few years ago, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland created "Perpetual Ocean," an animation showing the trajectory of ocean surface currents around the world from June 2005 to December 2007.

The high-resolution, 3D model was created using satellite data such as sea temperature, salinity, sea-surface height as well as location, and computational data to approximate what the currents might have looked like from a front row seat in space.

The description on the video from NASA says, " … the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience." Click on the video and you’ll find the task was very much accomplished.