The Climate Mapper and SERVIR Viz E-mail

 May 2008

USAID, NASA, the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology (IAGT), the University of Colorado, and CATHALAC are pleased to announce the beta release of the Climate Mapper tool for SERVIR—the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System.  The Climate Mapper makes the results of climate change models accessible to a broad user community.  With the Climate Mapper, users can assess climate change projections for the 2030s and 2050s against 3D visualizations of landscape. This should enhance vulnerability assessments as development planners consider adaptation strategies for projects.

The Climate Mapper and SERVIR Viz can be downloaded at:
http://maps.cathalac.org/downloads/SERVIR_viz/CC_Mapper_Plugin_0.9.exe


The Climate Mapper data are currently available for Africa for ½ degree ½ degree grid cells, or roughly 50km x 50km near the equator.  The Mapper will soon expand to cover the entire globe. The Climate Mapper presents historical temperature and precipitation for the base period (1961-1990). These data are taken from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) database of monthly climate observations from meteorological stations and interpolated onto a 0.5° grid covering the global land surface. 
 
The modeled data are monthly data averaged over the decades 2031-2040 and 2051-2060. Data are outputs of three of the models used in the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report: the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model (NCAR CCSM); the European Centre/Hamburg Model (ECHAM); and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Coupled Model (GFDL-CM21). These models were chosen because they represent the highest, middle, and lowest projections for changes in Africa in the Climate Moisture Index (CMI), a measure of the relative balance of precipitation and temperature.  The models were run using the A1B SRES scenario, a scenario of economic activity and carbon emissions that most closely represents the current or business-as-usual economic and carbon emissions trajectory.   The data presented as maps and graphs are the difference (delta) of a ten year average of GCM monthly values for the SRES A1B scenario compared with the 30 year average base period (1961 -1990).
 
 
The Climate Mapper grew out of USAID’s effort to develop its Climate Change Adaptation Guidance Manual.  There is a need to provide access to climate and weather data that has previously been hard to access.  Information on past weather and projected climate should inform development practitioners as they design projects to be more resilient to climate variability and change.  Designers should know that climate projections are not predictions; they are scenarios of possible futures based on complex models.  Models provide insights, but all of the development practitioner’s knowledge and experience should be brought into the design of a project.
 
The Climate Mapper initially serves Africa as part of SERVIR’s expansion beyond Mesoamerica, where SERVIR first got underway. SERVIR is a collaboration among various agencies including NASA, USAID, CATHALAC, the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) and the World Bank. A complete list of key SERVIR partners can be viewed by going to http://www.servir.net/ and clicking on “partners.” SERVIR integrates satellite and other geospatial data for improved scientific knowledge and decision making by managers, researchers, students, and the general public.  The Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi, Kenya is soon to become a SERVIR node, complementing the regional hub already established in Panama.  RCMRD will host a suite of visualization and monitoring tools, such as the Climate Mapper, for environmental management and decision support. The Climate Mapper is a plugin for SERVIR-Viz, a customized version of WorldWind, NASA’s free, open-source, web-enabled, 3D earth exploration tool.  As with other mapping browsers such as Google Earth, SERVIR-Viz allows users to zoom to any place on Earth and tilt the viewing angle so that they can "fly" across a 3-D terrain. The software taps into remotely-hosted framework data layers, maps, and satellite images and other SERVIR products in an interactive, 3D globe environment.  Using the Climate Mapper plug-in, users can zoom into specific areas within Africa and view summarized data in the form of charts and graphs.  Climate data are stored on the user’s hard drive and do not require a high speed internet connection.
 
This is a trial or beta release of the Climate Mapper Plug-in.  We welcome comments on the tool’s usability, the interface, and thoughts on the data we are making available.  We will try to incorporate suggestions into updates to the Plug-in.  We also welcome suggestions for additional datasets for the Climate Mapper to facilitate development and adaptation, or suggestions for additional plug-ins for SERVIR Viz.
 
Please send comments and suggestions to John Furlow at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .