the green bin

I was doing my usual Sunday evening Google-browse when I came across NASA’s “Eyes of the Earth 3D”…an interactive Earth in which you can interactively track a dozen of Earth’s satellites that are continuously collecting and mapping climate change data.  You can select from a good dozen satellites, view and follow their routes in “real time,” click on each satellite’s instruments to see how it collects data, and see all of the vital climate change signs as you are interacting with this Earth model.  For example, you can follow the Aqua satellite, which is solely responsible for studying weather and climate…and to the right of the model, you will notice that the Earth now has a CO2 concentration of 383 parts per million.  Great.  Just a little fun fact, but for 650,000 years, Earth’s atmospheric CO2 has never been above 300 parts per million.  What happened in those 650,000 years?  Multiple major climate changing events that shaped geological eras, including multiple ages of volcanic activity that put heavy amounts of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere and ice-ages that are estimated to have occurred every 10,000 years.

This interactive tool offers a lot.  To give you an idea, these Earth observing missions study everything.  One satellite monitors total sun energy that reaches the Earth, whereas another one is solely responsible for air and surface temperature, clouds, humidity.  One observes ozone and gases in the troposphere, while another one charts sea level.  Another satellite measures ocean level changes, while one specifically measures ocean surface winds, etc.  So if you’re wondering where scientists get their so-called “data,” this will give you an idea.  You can access NASA’s “Eyes on the Earth” from their Global Climate Change site, where you can learn more about the Earth’s vital signs, through historical data in relation to our current statistics, the causes, the uncertainties, the solutions, etc.  Or you can skip all of that fun stuff go directly to the interactive tool.

NASA is also telecasting high-def views of the Earth from the International Space Station on Earth Day, April 22nd, which is orbiting the planet once every 90 minutes from an altitude of approximately 220 miles and at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (that provides the crew with 16 sunrises and sunsets each day).