The United States Geological Survey created a web portal showing future climate projections. The projections were determined by a group of “statistically downscaled” global climate models, which is a technique used to make global climate models more relevant at the local level. The map itself allows a user to explore different climate change scenarios, with days above/below certain temperatures, precipitation amounts, and much more, as well seeing how these changes occur by county, ecoregion and such.
Climate Central, a non-profit, research and journalism organization, developed a mapping tool showing the growing threat of sea level rise and storm surge. The map documents what may happen to coastal communities as the ice caps melt and sea levels rise. Anyone can search by zip code or town name. The tool also includes features like the ability to change how different water levels would inundate different locations.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology collaborated to create a climate time machine. Anyone can pick from four different topics like carbon emissions and sea ice and see how much each has changed throughout the past several decades.
Developed by New Scientist, the map shows temperature change over time. The map uses data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies GISTEMP dataset. The data is derived from a global analysis of surface temperatures form 1880 to the present. The map includes yellow, orange and red heat points to show how much an area has warmed over time. A user can put in any location or zip code and the tool will show how average temperatures have changed in the past 20 years.
The Climate Change Institute at The University of Maine created The Climate Reanalyzer to “make key climate information readily available to everyone.” The map shows weather forecasts and data, ozone levels, historical weather station data and much more. It is particularly useful for seeing how unusual recent temperatures have been, such as the cold during the "polar vortex" event in January.
The Nature Conservancy, The University of Washington and the University of Southern Mississippi created Climate Wizard to show historic temperature and rainfall maps, as well as future predictions of temperature and rainfall around the world. Any user can look at a state or country and see how climate has changed over time and see what changes may come.
The global wind map uses data from the Global Forecast System and shows current weather patterns worldwide. Created by Cameron Beccarlo, a web developer, a user can use the map to see which way winds are blowing at different levels of the atmosphere. An added feature is that a user can also see current weather events happening around the world. It’s updated every three hours, and more features are being added, including ocean currents.
Cal-Adapt, a project of the California Energy Commission, the California Natural Resources Agency and the Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER), is technically a web-based climate adaptation tool. The tool uses existing downscaled climate change scenarios to let a user see possible climate change risks in specific areas around the state. For example, a user can look at the degree of temperature change around the state or how different levels of snowpack will threaten California. The map focuses on four features: temperature, snowpack, sea level rise and precipitation.
Climate change has become a difficult concept for the general public to imagine, with an array of scenarios each affecting the world differently.
The federal government, nonprofit groups and individuals have come up with visualization tools to help the public better understand the impacts that climate change may have not only on the world, but also at the local level.
See also: NASA Shows 60 Years of Climate Change in 15 Seconds
To help envision both current climate and weather patterns and the possible consequences that could occur due to climate change, here are eight tools that give a clearer understanding of the atmosphere.
Do you have a favorite tool or map you like to use? Let us know in the comments.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.