Join the Global Climate Change Conversation with NASA’s Earth Now
Wanna join the global climate change conversation? Arm yourself with real-time facts about Earth’s vital signs from NASA’s Earth Now mobile app.
Earth Now is an app that visualizes recent global climate data, including surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and water vapor, as well as gravity and sea level variations.
This app not only shows you the current vital signs of the planet, but also explains why each vital sign is important to monitor, and how changes to these signs affect the climate.
So what does NASA have to do with climate change?
NASA is an expert in climate and Earth science and its purview includes providing the robust scientific data needed to understand climate change and evaluating the impact of efforts to combat it, according to NASA’s website. NASA makes this information available to the global community. For more information, see NASA’s role.
The Earth Now app displays a 3-D model of Earth that you can spin, rotate and zoom in and out to see how each climate data map affects a specific area. For instance, select the “Ozone” vital sign and you can zoom in to see the severely depleted region over Antarctica between the months of August and October. The app goes on to explain what ozone is and how it functions on Earth.
Select the “Carbon Dioxide” vital sign and learn how it plays a crucial role in both air pollution and climate change, and see how the U.S. compares in carbon monoxide distribution in real time to other regions of the world.
The app contains a treasure trove of information on the state of the planet, and is suitable for a wide audience with various levels of understanding about climate change. The app goes in-depth about each data point, but also does a great job of explaining how it relates to the bigger picture of global climate.
Earth Now is available on Apple iOS and Android devices. It was developed by the Earth Science Communications and Visualization Technology Applications and Development Teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with support from NASA Headquarters.
Bonus: Don’t miss the awesomely mobile-optimized climate.nasa.gov website, which is linked from the information screen of the app. The website lays out evidence, causes and effects of global climate change, and links to selected resources from U.S. government organizations that provide information about options for responding to climate change.You can download this and other cool mobile government apps with just a few clicks from our USA.gov Federal Mobile Apps Directory. Federal agencies can get their apps in the directory by using the The Federal Mobile Products Registry.
