Animated maps of seasonal Earth

Jul 9, 2019

As you might expect, NASA collects a lot of data, and much of it is seasonal. Eleanor Lutz animated a few maps to show the detail:

To show a few examples, the NASA Earth Observations website includes data on seasonal fire incidence (1), vegetation (2), solar insolation, or the amount of sunlight (3), cloud fraction (4), ice sheet coverage (5), and processed satellite images (6). My own map (7) combines the ice sheet data and the Blue Marble satellite images (6). The NEO database also has many more interesting datasets not shown here, like rainfall, chlorophyll concentration, or Carbon Monoxide.

Check out the final result. And, if you want to make your own, Lutz published her code on GitHub.

Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.

See What You Get

Favorites

The Stages of Relationships, Distributed

Everyone’s relationship timeline is a little different. This animation plays out real-life paths to marriage.

When Americans Reach $100k in Savings

It was reported that 1 in 6 millennials have at least $100,000 saved. Is this right? It seems high. I looked at the data to find out and then at all of the age groups.

The Best Data Visualization Projects of 2014

It’s always tough to pick my favorite visualization projects. Nevertheless, I gave it a go.

A Day in the Life: Work and Home

I simulated a day for employed Americans to see when and where they work.