El Niño and other climate phenomena are explained in a series of video animations produced by Planetary Visions for the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative. Our El Niño animation illustrates the links between ocean temperature and circulation, sea level, marine life, cloud cover and soil moisture, and its climatic effects across the world, such as floods, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires.

Data visualisation is combined with computer graphics to show the link between microscopic processes, such as the seeding of clouds by aerosols, and global observations of climate variables from satellites.

Ozone is a powerful greenhouse gas. We show seasonal variations, such as the springtime ozone hole over Antarctica, as well as the vertical distribution of ozone and its relationship to other atmospheric climate variables.

The ocean currently acts as a carbon sink, with green phytoplankton absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. We show how satellite observations of ocean colour help improve our knowledge of the carbon cycle and the accuracy of climate models.

Planetary Visions designed and produced ten computer graphic animations, totalling 30 minutes of broadcast quality video in HD1080, using data from all thirteen projects of ESA's Climate Change Initiative. The animations are presented in interactive software at the annual UN Climate Change Conferences and other scientific and intergovernmental meetings, in a tablet app available to the public, and on ESA's website.