USA Global Forever Issue Features Conteniental View

USA 2014-04-22

As a very fitting observance of Earth Day, the US Postal Service issued “Sea Surface Temperatures,” a new global forever stamp on April 22, 2014. The circular self-adhesive is valid for the $1.15 international forever rate, and is the second Global Forever issue to be of interest to cartophilatelists.  The stamp depicts a representation of sea surface temperatures brightly colored in the ocean areas, while the land masses of north and south America and covered by a natural color satellite mosaic.  “The image is one frame in a 1,460-frame animation created from the output of a computer model of Earth’s climate by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The full animation shows how the surface temperatures of the oceans vary seasonally and change over time, and how surface ocean currents and eddies transport heat and water around the globe.”  While the web site did not describe the data used, the sea surface temperatures could be derived from MODIS Aqua data and the natural color mosaic also MODIS or Blue Marble.  [ please contact us if you know the details of the platforms/sensors/data depicted in this stamp –web admin ]