Vulcan Project: The Breath of a Nation
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
Credit the clever title to Andy Revkin. It is a map showing the concentrations of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Watch the amazing video of the Vulcan Project, "an effort to quantify fossil fuel and CO2 emissions over the United States in high space and time resolution. We will also be showing those emissions transported through the atmosphere using an atmospheric transport model." narrated by Kevin Gurney of Purdue University.
Different maps show power plants, industrial sources, mobile sources, residential and commercial, mashed together onto a 10 kilometer grid and run in very fast motion.
::Vulcan Project via ::Dot Earth and ::Wired
Honestly - this is not very impressive. They just took the population density of the country and shaded things accordingly, plus slapped some lines in where major intestates and other highways cross through.
You can tell it's not more sophisticated than that because county lines are clearly visible. Notably - look at Clark and Washoe counties in Nevada and it's plainly obvious that much of this map is just drawn on county lines. I guarantee there is next to zero carbon emissions in northern Washoe county but the map shows it as dark green arbitrarily!
It would be great to see this incorporated into a web site. There's a lot of red over Michigan. I thought we were a Blue State.
I agree about taking general population density and a magic marker and coloring the map. What about the trees that are putting oxygen back into the air? Surely Michigan has lots of trees AND people? Still, a nice reminder to take care of our one and only planet!
the part that's impressive isn't the map, it's combining the CO2 map (which isn't perfect, but whatever) and the atmospheric models, and animating them. if you think pollution in your city only effects your city, think again. reducing pollution is in everyone's best interest.
@YatchBurg
I noticed that too. It's a composite map. Some of the data used is tabulated at the county level. Other data sets are smaller than the grid cells.
You should take a look at the other maps.
@Jeff Kart
It is on a website. Or do you mean something akin to Google Maps?
Yatchburg, what its showing isnt where its coming from, but where it IS. If its shaded green, it symbolizes not a area where large amounts are being emitted, but where larger amount are currently in the air. The area north or a major city surely doesnt produce as much as the city itself, but the emissions from the city dont stand still, they move around due to wind, pressure changes, and other factors.
Please, think about it
oh, i don't know, yatchburg, i'm pretty impressed. perhaps you should try watching the whole thing.
YatchBurg & John Reiser are 100% correct in their descriptions of the top map with the reticulated pattern.
The video details its construction in a stepwise matter.
It also does show a timelapse CGI video of measured CO2 conc. that is nebulous and pulsatile. It follows patterns one would expect to find in nature and is quite interesting.
Of particular interest to myself is the persistent plume that overlies the Ohio River Valley. I have never been there and am unsure if it is due to population and industrial production or is due to topographical properties inherent to the region.