Explore Our Planet

The NEO Project (NASA Earth Observations) provides an advanced flash interface, map download, analysis features and a full fledged OGC WMS server. The range of available layers are all related to Climate Change and Global Warming.

As a first try ExploreOurPla.net implements 5 layers with interesting data. All of them show combined data of last full month. This leads to full coverage since clouds are elimated. See following examples with direct links to the map interface and the description taken from layer abstract (credits go to NASA).

This map shows the temperature of Earth’s lands during the daytime. Temperature is a measure of how warm or cold an object is. During the day, the Sun’s rays warm Earth’s lands. Some of this warmth rises into the air where gases catch and hold the warmth near the surface. These gases (called greenhouse gases) also help to warm Earth’s land surface.

We can use a thermometer to measure the temperature of any single place. Likewise, scientists can measure the temperature of the whole world from space using instruments carried on satellites. Scientists want to know the land’s temperature for many important reasons. For example, in places where it is too hot or too cold food crops may die.

Temperature also influences weather and climate patterns. So, mapping the temperature of Earth’s lands helps scientists to better understand our world.

Because carbon dioxide gas helps to warm our world, scientists want to better understand where carbon dioxide comes from and where it goes. Plants play an important role in the movements of carbon dioxide throughout Earth’s environment.

Living plants both take in carbon dioxide from the air and put out carbon dioxide to the air. So scientists use satellites to measure the difference between how much carbon dioxide is taken in by plants compared to how much is put out by them.

This difference is total amount of carbon dioxide taken in by plants, called net primary productivity. The maps here show plants’ net primary productivity for the whole globe.

Sea surface temperature is the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean’s surface. Sea surface temperatures influence weather, including hurricanes, as well as plant and animal life in the ocean. Like Earth’s land surface, sea surface temperatures are warmer near the equator and colder near the poles.

Currents like giant rivers move warm and cold water around the world’s oceans. Some of these currents flow on the surface, and they are obvious in sea surface temperature images.

Special microwave technology allows the AMSR-E sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite to measure sea surface temperatures through clouds, something no satellite sensor before it was able to do across the whole globe.

Rainfall is essential for life on Earth. Rain is a main source of fresh water for plants and animals. These maps show where and how much rain fell around the world on the dates shown. Red areas show where there was a lot of rain. Yellow and green areas show medium values, and white areas show where there was little or no rainfall. Notice that most rain falls near the equator.

Notice also that more rain falls on the ocean than on land. The NASA instrument that made these rainfall measurements flies on a satellite orbiting our world near the equator, so it only measures rainfall near the equator and not at high latitudes, nor in Earth’s polar regions.

This map shows where tiny, floating plants live in the ocean. These plants, called phytoplankton, are an important part of the ocean’s food chain because many animals (such as small fish and whales) feed on them. Scientists can learn a lot about the ocean by observing where and when phytoplankton grow in large numbers.

Scientists use satellites to measure how much phytoplankton are growing in the ocean by observing the color of the light reflected from the surface of the water. A green pigment in their skin, called chlorophyll, gives phytoplankton their green color. When phytoplankton grow in large numbers they make the ocean appear greenish.

These maps made from satellite observations show where and how much phytoplankton were growing on a given day, or over a span of days. The black areas show where the satellite could not measure phytoplankton.

Some work is still needed to optimize the layers (overlay, transparency, projection), do not hesitate to express your needs. The NEO project is sponsored by Vince Salomonson and Michael King, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.