Enlarge / Global snapshot of the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (VSI), which measures environmental sensitivity to a changing climate, using satellite data gathered between 2000-2013 at 5km resolution. Areas in green are covered in vegetation that is the least sensitive to changes. Areas in red show the highest sensitivity. Grey areas are barren land or ice covered. Water is blue. (credit: Sedon, et. al.)
Climate change isn't just one, uniform transformation of the planet. Over time, some areas are going to get hotter, some wetter, some cloudier—and vice versa. This map, produced using a new system for analyzing satellite data, reveals which parts of the planet will be most affected by these changes.
Published in Nature, the map shows what the researchers call a vegetation sensitivity index (VSI). The VSI is a new measure of environmental vulnerability that combines several sources of data. The first source of data comes from the enhanced vegetation index—a measurement of plant cover on the ground, built with data from a satellite-based, moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer.
The researchers added information about how well each region's plant life could withstand changes in temperature, moisture, and cloud cover.
Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment