Carbon Emission Map on Google

 

This image from the Vulcan layer of Google Earth shows the breakdown of carbon dioxide emissions for Orange County, Calif. The Vulcan layer, created by a team led by Purdue scientists, quantifies carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and breaks down the source of emissions by the sectors responsible including aircraft, commercial areas, electricity production, industrial areas, on-road and non-road transportation, and residential areas. The main contributor of emissions for Orange County is on-road travel that includes cars, trucks and buses. Images courtesy of Purdue

A new high-resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is now available on Google Earth.

With a few clicks on Google Earth, anyone can now view pollution from factories, power plants, roadways, and residential and commercial areas for their state, county or per capita. Individuals also can easily see how their county compares to others across the nation.

A team led by scientists at Purdue University developed the maps and system, named Vulcan after the Roman god of fire. The system quantifies all of the carbon dioxide emissions that result from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline. It is available at www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth/.

This map of the continental United States, pulled from the Vulcan layer of Google Earth, shows carbon emission levels in metric tons for each county. Red circles containing the letter ‘P’ indicate the location of power plants, and pie charts break down the sources of emissions by sector including aircraft, commercial areas, electricity production, industrial areas, on-road and non-road transportation, and residential areas. A team led by Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue, created the Vulcan layer. Also in the image is a list of carbon emissions by sector for Harris County, Texas. The industrial sector is the greatest contributor of emissions for this county. /em>

Kevin Gurney, who leads the project, said Vulcan helps demystify the connection between fossil fuel use and climate change.

Next the team plans to gather even finer detail with the goal of being able to have emissions data at the street level. The team also plans to expand Vulcan to other countries, beginning with Canada and Mexico.