Interns and Advisers: Please upload your draft Google Earth products to this page.
District Managers and Presenters: Please take a look at the content below and offer some comments on how these can be made even more useful to our presenters. Please enter your comments in the space at the bottom of this page, and be clear on which file you are commenting. You will need Google Earth (which can be downloaded for free) to view the KML or KMZ files. Please let me know if you have any questions or problems. (Jeremy.Richardson@theclimateproject.org)
Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Tree Population by State. This is the most recent version as of December 16th, and includes significant fixes over our previous drafts. Tree population by state is indicated by height, while Carbon Dioxide emission per area is indicated by color. Tree leaf color ramps from Green to Red as carbon dioxide emission rises per square mile.
Global carbon emissions (carbon dioxode from fossil fuel use). The global map shows use patterns (color-coded) for 1980 - 2006, and captions for each country. This KMZ document uses Google Charts to generate the charts of emission patterns, so it requires a network connection. Includes December 2008 EIA data updates.
Similar to global carbon, but the KMZ contains all the charts pre-rendered, so no network connection is required. WARNING: There is an unsolved issue with Google Earth version 4.3b on the Macintosh. For Macintosh users with 4.3b, make a directory on your desktop (e.g. "Global_Carbon"). Move the KMZ file to this directory, and change the extension from "kmz" to "zip". Double clicking on this file will uncompress the file, creating a document "doc.kml" and a subdirectory "files" with all the charts. Double-click on doc.kml to launch it in Google Earth: this file should now work normally. The network-free file should work correctly without this decompression step on all other systems.
Includes December 2008 update from EIA include most recent (2006) data.
Global insolation (a measure of the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface of the Earth, and hence available for photosynthesis or solar power generation). This annual average of data from 2007 comes from the CERES instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.
Global oil consumption patterns, displayed by country, 1980 - 2006 (just made available be EIA). The icon symbol is a small white tag (so as not to be too intrusive and crowded where countries are close to each other). A previously noted problem with Google Charts on Google Earth 4.3 Beta on the PC has been corrected.
Global oil consumption, 1980 - 2006. This is a special file for use where there is no network connection... and does not work perfectly with Google Earth 4.3 Beta on Macintosh (charts do not always show up: it appears to work with other versions and on PCs). For 4.3b Mac Users, change the extension from ".kmz" to ".zip" and double-click to uncompress the file. This will create a document "doc.kml" and a directory "files" with all the graphics. Double click on doc.kml to launch Google Earth: it should work perfectly well in this uncompressed setup.
Surface Air Temperature, GISS ModelE, A1B scenario, 1970-2100
-- Surface Air Temperature, 1970-2100 -- make sure the time slider is on (Menu > View > Show Time > Always), and make sure international border layer is visible (Left Sidebar > Layers > Primary Database > Borders & Labels).
Push the "play" arrow on the time slider.
Click the clock icon to adjust the speed of the time slider.
Surface Air Temperature, NCAR model, A1B scenario, 1970-2100-- make sure the time slider is on (Menu > View > Show Time > Always), and make sure international border layer is visible (Left Sidebar > Layers > Primary Database > Borders & Labels).
Push the "play" arrow on the time slider.
Click the clock icon to adjust the speed of the time slider.
This KMZ aims to show a relationship between the number of trees per state and the amount of carbon dioxide measured in the atmosphere. The height of each tree reflects the number of trees in a particular state, and the color of the tree leaves represent the order in which the state ranks in terms of carbon dioxide emission. The redder the state tree, the more CO2 is emitted. The opposite is true for greener leaves. All data comes from 2005, and, sadly, Hawaii is the only US state currently missing data. Other than that, all states are accounted for and this should be the final version.
This KMZ aims to show a relationship between the number of trees per state and the amount of carbon dioxide measured in the atmosphere. The height of each tree reflects the number of trees in a particular state, and the color of the tree leaves represent the amount of carbon dioxide at time of measurement. All data comes from 2005, and, sadly, Hawaii is the only US state currently missing data. The color ramps for the trees are still being tweaked, but we expect a similar final product to what is available here.
Potential for solar electricity generation from photovoltaic panels (simple non-tracking panels set to face south and tilted at an angle equal to their latitude (i.e. to point at the average position of the Sun over the year)), based on available solar illumination.
Total carbon emissions at the county level through the U.S., colour coded. If you zoom in close on a specific area, county names will appear. If you click on a spot just in front of the county name (the county name will change from large white to large black text when you have the mouse in the right spot), a chart showing the relative contributions of various sources to the total carbon emissions from the county.There is a pop-up window that shows some of the key places and interesting background on them also included. Select "A Tale of Three Cities" in the folder under "My Places" (or Temporary Places) to bring up this information and associated graphics.
This is a screenshot from GE, showing the temperature difference between two years (ranging +/- 6 degrees Celsius). I'm currently crunching the numbers for 130 years, and I'll be showing, for a baseline of 1970-2000, the increase/decrease for the decades of 2000s, 2010s, 2020s, etc. through 2100. (This is based on model A1B, obtained through NCAR/CCSM and the Goddard Institute).
12/2/08 4:20PST: Jesse & Reghina...great job on the global carbon.kmz! If possible it would be very helpful to have the names of the countries attached to the data pop-up screens, not everyone may be geographically literate enough to know what statistic goes to what country. Also, since the data being used is from 2005 but specified as last updated in Sept 2006...is it possible to have stats for BOTH years made available for clarification purposes? Last question, how does the map demonstrate emission patterns?
Thanks for your work and again great job!
Eric Torres, SW DM
jesse.s.allen@nasa.gov - Dec 7, 2008 7:40 PM
Eric and others reading Thanks for feedback on our files. Country names show up when you move in closer on any area: Google Earth does not display them in a global context where they would be too difficult to read and overlap, but has them appear when they would become readable closer in. So if you are not sure where Togo or Guinea-Bissau might be, you do at least have to know at very approximately where they are, zoom in a bit closer, and the names pop up. The updates from the Energy Information Adminstration are what they are. The data we have included is the most recent available, as of a month or so ago when we downloaded it. The citation in the source table online states the data were posted October 1, 2007, next update July 2008 (for oil consumption: there are minor differences but similar values for other data sources). The data itself ends in 2005. This is what they have online at the moment. We'll deliver our processing code to The Climate Project at the end of the project so that updates can be made, but what we have shows the most recent data available. The final question you ask is kind of a doozy. At some level, Google Earth is really not a grand tool for using in the midst of a talk. For example, it's global data, but you can only see (at best) half the globe at a time... However, with that said, the maps demonstrate current (well, 2005) patterns of use geographically: You can see that major carbon emitters are U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and India: It's not merely large developed economies that dominate. Another interesting point to note is that most European nations, while hardly minor contributors, are absent from the first tier of major emitters (go in a select an individual western or northern European country and see the pattern over time... and compare that to China or the U.S.). Also worth noting in a geographic context is the extent to which this is a truly global issue: there are major carbon emission source countries on every continent for which we have data.
Jesse & Regina
Katy Valesky - Dec 9, 2008 10:48 AM
I really love all of these files. I especially like the solar potential and would love to see that with wind, geothermal, etc. I think strategic placement of these renewable energy sources will become clear with maps like these! I didn't quite understand the tree CO2 output file and didn't know if the color of the trees had any significance. The world temperature future plays a little fast, but maybe I just don't know how to slow it down... If we could capture that in a movie file for the US, I think that would be a great addition to the slide show. The oil and carbon consumption files are great. It is aggravating that the data is always 3 years behind, but having the ability to update the data will be great!
Thanks so much to all of you for your work on this project! Katy Valesky
12/2/08 4:20PST: Jesse & Reghina...great job on the global carbon.kmz! If possible it would be very helpful to have the names of the countries attached to the data pop-up screens, not everyone may be geographically literate enough to know what statistic goes to what country. Also, since the data being used is from 2005 but specified as last updated in Sept 2006...is it possible to have stats for BOTH years made available for clarification purposes? Last question, how does the map demonstrate emission patterns?
Thanks for your work and again great job!
Eric Torres, SW DM
Eric and others reading
Thanks for feedback on our files. Country names show up when you move in closer on any area: Google Earth does not display them in a global context where they would be too difficult to read and overlap, but has them appear when they would become readable closer in. So if you are not sure where Togo or Guinea-Bissau might be, you do at least have to know at very approximately where they are, zoom in a bit closer, and the names pop up.
The updates from the Energy Information Adminstration are what they are. The data we have included is the most recent available, as of a month or so ago when we downloaded it. The citation in the source table online states the data were posted October 1, 2007, next update July 2008 (for oil consumption: there are minor differences but similar values for other data sources). The data itself ends in 2005. This is what they have online at the moment. We'll deliver our processing code to The Climate Project at the end of the project so that updates can be made, but what we have shows the most recent data available.
The final question you ask is kind of a doozy. At some level, Google Earth is really not a grand tool for using in the midst of a talk. For example, it's global data, but you can only see (at best) half the globe at a time... However, with that said, the maps demonstrate current (well, 2005) patterns of use geographically: You can see that major carbon emitters are U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and India: It's not merely large developed economies that dominate. Another interesting point to note is that most European nations, while hardly minor contributors, are absent from the first tier of major emitters (go in a select an individual western or northern European country and see the pattern over time... and compare that to China or the U.S.). Also worth noting in a geographic context is the extent to which this is a truly global issue: there are major carbon emission source countries on every continent for which we have data.
Jesse & Regina
I really love all of these files. I especially like the solar potential and would love to see that with wind, geothermal, etc. I think strategic placement of these renewable energy sources will become clear with maps like these! I didn't quite understand the tree CO2 output file and didn't know if the color of the trees had any significance. The world temperature future plays a little fast, but maybe I just don't know how to slow it down... If we could capture that in a movie file for the US, I think that would be a great addition to the slide show. The oil and carbon consumption files are great. It is aggravating that the data is always 3 years behind, but having the ability to update the data will be great!
Thanks so much to all of you for your work on this project!
Katy Valesky