It is hot outside! Is that because of a local heatwave, or because it is summer, or because of global warming? Just how hot is it compared to the past few years? These are the types of questions that NASA seeks to answer with its latest image showing the anomalies in land surface temperatures when compared to recent years. However, you need to read the information below to understand the full implications of this scientific visualization.
This global map shows temperature anomalies for July 4–11, 2010, compared to temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. The anomalies are based on land surface temperatures observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Areas with above-average temperatures appear in red and orange, and areas with below-average temperatures appear in shades of blue. Oceans, lakes, and areas with insufficient data (usually because of persistent clouds) appear in gray.
Because this image shows temperature anomalies rather than absolute temperatures, not all red areas are warmer than all blue areas. Red-hued northern Canada, for instance, is not warmer than blue-hued northern Mexico. Although deep red tones predominate along the mid-Atlantic coast, absolute temperatures are probably warmer in the barely orange American Southwest. Unusually warm conditions predominate in South America, but the Southern Hemisphere is in winter.
via Land Surface Temperatures, Early July 2010 : Image of the Day.
