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Where is the dirtiest air? Where are forests cut down? Which countries will be flooded if all the ice melts? This collection contains interactive maps and portals that will be useful for those who want to keep abreast of up-to-date climate data
1. ScanEx fire map
What can you find out. See where the forests are burning, find out the approximate area of the fire, track changes and intensity.
How does it work. The map summarizes data from satellites that work on the principle of heat points, that is, satellites notice a fire by infrared radiation. The temperature at the source of the fire is much higher than the temperature of the ground, so it is easy to fix it, while clouds and smoke do not interfere. Satellites transmit data two to four times a day.
The map works both in our country and around the world (takes data from NASA open sources). There are additional settings: the boundaries of nature reserves, the Baikal nature protection zone and administrative regions. The site does not require registration, the basic version is free. In the paid Pro version, information is updated twice as often, there is access to detailed images and weather forecast maps, there is data on fire statistics for the regions of our country.
2. Forests of the world: Global Forest Watch project
What can you find out. The map has many features that show forest loss over the years, forest growth, protected areas, biodiversity, and more.
How does it work. This is a joint project of the World Resources Institute and Google. The portal collects information both from satellites and from open sources. There is both an interactive map and an information site. On the map, data on forest loss and restoration are broken down by country and year. The portal has many articles on forest and land use and climate change.
There is a Forest Watcher mobile application: for Android and for iOS.
3. World Air Quality Index
What can you find out. How high are the indicators of suspended particles, carbon dioxide, ozone and other pollutants in the air.
How does it work. The site collects real-time air quality data from over 100 countries around the world. Depending on the city, the indicators by which the state of the air is assessed differ, for our country these are mainly suspended particles of PM2.5 and PM10. The number of measuring stations also varies from city to city.
The World Air Quality Index is a non-commercial project that began operating in 2007. Now the map unites more than 10 thousand monitoring stations. The service collects information both from official sources (for example, Mosecomonitoring) and from individuals. You can install a measuring device yourself and transfer information to the site.
4. Ocean Plastic Pollution Map
What can you find out. See where the most plastic accumulates in the seas and oceans.
How does it work. Designed by designers from New Zealand who collected data from field studies and expeditions. The map shows the approximate concentration of plastic waste in the seas and oceans. Each white dot on the map corresponds to approximately 20 kg of floating plastic.
On the site, you can study some expeditions in detail: track the route and the amount of plastic waste that was found at a particular point. The map has a breakdown not only by quantity, but also by weight and particle size: from 0,33 mm to 20 cm.
5. Map of floods
What can you find out. See which cities will be flooded if the water level rises by 1 m or more. For example, the center of St. Petersburg will go under water if the sea level rises by 13 m.
How does it work. Flood Map is a private initiative of programmer Alex Tingle, who combined NASA open data on the map. Choose the water level (from 1 to 60 m) – and the forecast of flooding around the world appears on the map.
The creator admits that the forecasts are approximate, since the data is incomplete, and it is difficult to take into account all climatic factors. For him, this is primarily a chance to draw people’s attention to the problem of climate change and rising sea levels.
6. Climate time machine
What can you find out. In dynamics, see the melting of the Arctic ice, rising sea levels, changes in global temperature and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide.
How does it work. This is a kind of climate time machine – a visualization of key climate indicators based on NASA data.
The maps have data for different years, so it’s easy to see changes when switching between dates. Here you can get visual information on global temperature for a specific year or compare the amount of ice in the Arctic for different periods.
7. Data on climate change
What can be found. Visual data on greenhouse gas emissions, ranked by country, industry and type of greenhouse gases.
How does it work. Climate Watch is managed by the World Resources Institute. The site collects data from various authoritative open sources.
It is a free platform for politicians, journalists and anyone interested in environmental issues. From the site you can freely take scientific and official data. The portal is specially designed so that everyone can download the charts and tables they need.
8. Ecological footprint map
What can you find out. Whether the country is an environmental donor or lender, and which countries have the most negative impact on the environment.
How does it work. The site staff collects information from different UNPO divisions and calculates, based on these data, the level of resource consumption and its biocapacity for each country – the availability of productive land for the reproduction of resources and the absorption of carbon dioxide emissions. If a country consumes more resources than nature can restore, then it is considered an environmental debtor. Ecological lenders are those countries where recovery is outpacing consumption.
The non-profit project was founded in 2003. Its goal is to raise people’s awareness of environmental issues. The creators of the service encourage open use of their data, so it is easy to download all the charts from the site. You can also calculate your personal carbon footprint on the portal.
9. Map of the ozone layer
What can you find out. The thickness of the ozone layer over a certain area and the dynamics of changes.
How does it work. This map is developed by the Canadian organization World Ozone Monitoring, which has been monitoring changes in the ozone layer since 1998. Information comes from satellites and from ground measuring stations. The data is updated once a day. Separately, you can see the changes in the ozone layer for the Arctic.
The thickness of the ozone layer is measured in Dobson units, which is equal to 10 micrometers. If there are less than 220 such units, then we can talk about the ozone hole.
10. Earth in real time
What can you find out. Temperature, concentration of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and water vapor, gravity field level, soil moisture, sea level and salinity.
How does it work. Free app for Android and iOS from NASA. All information comes from satellites, which can be read separately. The application also shows the orbits along which the satellites move.
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