The Vulcan layer of Google Earth tracks carbon dioxide emission levels for each county. Image: Google Earth Vulcan Project, Purdue University

By Angela Dorizas

Ordinary Americans don’t need to be scientists to understand the reasons behind climate change policies thanks to a new interactive map that tracks carbon dioxide emissions.

Developed by a team of scientists from Purdue University, the Vulcan map system quantifies all carbon dioxide emissions generated from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas.

Vulcan project leader and assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Kevin Gurney, said the map allowed US citizens to understand the connection between fossil fuel use and climate change.

"What was once the realm of scientists will now be provided directly to the public," Gurney said.

"We hope to eventually turn it into an interactive space where the public will feed information into the system to create an even finer picture of emissions down to the street and individual building level."

Funded by NASA and the US Department of Energy, the three year project involved scientists and researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Named after the Greek god of fire, Vulcan integrates NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface, carbon emissions data from the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, and population data from the US Census Bureau.

Google engineer Simon Ilyushchenko volunteered his time to integrate the Vulcan system with Google Earth to create a new layer, allowing users to view pollution from factories, power plants, roadways, residential and commercial precincts for their state or local government area and compare it with other districts across the US.

"Vulcan had great information, but was not easy for a non-scientist to analyse and understand," Ilyushchenko said.

"Integrating the data with Google Earth was a way to advance public understanding of fossil fuel energy usage."

Purdue University academic and Vulcan researcher Daniel Mendoza told GovernmentNews that providing a detailed view of carbon emissions allowed for "more appropriate and educated decisions" to be made by local, state and federal governments.

"Local and state governments are able to see what their local emissions are and can compare with neighbouring or similar regions," Mendoza said.

"For example, a per facility emission comparison can be used to try and pinpoint particular areas that would need improvements or reduction in emissions. The per capita comparison can be useful in comparing the usage by different counties or localities."

At the same time, ordinary citizens are able to understand the reasons behind climate change policy.

"This puts the ordinary citizen in a better place to understand, and for the first time see exactly where the CO2 producers are located and what the volume of emissions is," Mendoza said.

"This in turn can help in the understanding of the steps taken in climate change policy."

The next stage of the Vulcan project is to gather emissions data from a street level, to provide an even closer snapshot of how energy use contributes to climate change. The research team is working towards expanding Vulcan beyond US borders, starting with neighbouring Canada and Mexico.

"We are also in the beginning stages of our next project, Hestia, which will encompass the entire world at a much finer temporal and spatial resolution," Mendoza said.

"There is no time frame for the completion of it yet as we have just started a pilot of the project in Indianapolis."

Track carbon dioxide emissions with the Google Earth Vulcan map.

Watch a Purdue University demonstration.