Pipeline
How it works
- 01
OBSERVE
Scientific satellites and ocean observations provide information about sea surface temperature.
- 02
PROCESS
NOAA combines observations into daily OISST analyses. Each temperature is associated with a geographic grid cell and date.
- 03
TRANSFORM
A mathematical equation maps an observed temperature to an audible frequency. Colder values produce lower pitches.
- 04
LISTEN
A sine-wave oscillator generates the calculated frequency. The waveform and spectrum are measured from that audio signal.
- 05
COMPARE
Explore thermal differences between ocean regions through data visualization and sequential sound.
What is data sonification?
Sonification represents numbers through sound. These are mathematical representations of temperature, not physical sounds recorded in the ocean. A temperature is converted into a pure tone; differences you hear correspond to differences in the data.
x = (T − Tmin) / (Tmax − Tmin)
f = fmin × (fmax / fmin)ˣ
Experimental parameters: Tmin = −2 °C, Tmax = 35 °C, fmin = 110 Hz, fmax = 880 Hz. These are not universal scientific limits. At 16.5 °C, the generated frequency is about 311.127 Hz.
One snapshot. One scientific source.
The ocean lab uses the final NOAA OISST v2.1 analysis for January 1, 2026, at its original 0.25° resolution. Map colors and sound read the same numerical cells. Land and missing observations do not generate ocean temperatures. Ocean labels are broad conventional regions, not official maritime boundaries. The thermal legend spans −2 to 35 °C; only color endpoints are clipped, never the observed number.
NOAA OISST methodology and source ↗