Stunning visualisation by NASA shows the catastrophic effect climate change has had on our planet over the past two decades.

Data from September 1997 to this past September has been crunched into two minutes of spectacular viewing.

Polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The different shades of the ocean highlight the abundance or lack of wildlife.

NASA's animation shows the impact of climate change (
Image:
NASA)

"It's like watching the Earth breathe. It's really remarkable," said NASA oceanographer Jeremy Werdell.

NASA stressed the clip highlights how spring is coming earlier and autumn is lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere, and how ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctic have been receding rapidly over time .

Two decades of data has been condensed into minutes of footage (
Image:
NASA)
NASA described the visualisation as 'watching Earth breathe' (
Image:
NASA)

Mr Werdell continued: "It's like all of my senses are being transported into space, and then you can compress time and rewind it, and just continually watch this kind of visualisation."

He added that the bright green colours show algae booms, including results of the water-warming El Nino that merged into the cooling La Nina in 1997 to 1998.

Experts warned earlier this year that El Nino may return .