Recently Google held a contest to present scientific results using KML, a data format used by Google Earth. Google Earth - the digital globe on which computer users can fly around the planet and zoom in on key features - is attracting attention in scientific communities and aiding public communication about carbon dioxide. Technology is giving us better pictures every day, and one of them is helping a NASA-funded scientist and her team to explain the behavior of a greenhouse gas. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science. Tyler Erickson, of Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor, designed a Google Earth application to educate the public and scientists about how carbon dioxide emissions can be traced. Credit: Anna Michalak of the University of Michigan Credit: NOAA, 2009 Digital GlobeĪ static two-dimensional map of the location of carbon dioxide, averaged for June 2004, becomes dynamic when that same information is presented in the Google Earth format. The NOAA-equipped towers as represented in the Google Earth application. Towers across the United States (top), are equipped with instruments by NOAA to measure the carbon dioxide content of parcels of air at single locations. A Google Earth application reveals carbon dioxide in the lowest part of the atmosphere close to Earth's surface (green tracks) and carbon dioxide at higher altitudes that are immune from ground influences (red tracks).
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