Obama creates climate tool with Google, Intel, Microsoft
Databases to share stored information
Google plans to create highresolution drought mapping for the mainland United States as part of a White House effort — to be unveiled today — to give communities more data so they can prepare for climate change.
Google, one of several corporate participants, will also use federal databases to build what it says will be the first terrain map of the planet to show how sea levels and other climate-related changes are occurring.
Rebecca Moore, of Google Earth Engine & Earth Outreach, says Google aims to help people prepare for extreme heat, drought, sea level rise and flooding “as easily as they use Google maps to get driving directions.”
The Obama administration is tapping the expertise and reach of more than a dozen U.S. companies, universities and private groups, as well as the World Bank for its “Climate Data Initiative.”
Beginning today, a new weblink — climate.data.gov — will be the central site for U.S. government data on climate change.
John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, says the initiative aims to tap the “ingenuity” of the private sector in developing user-friendly applications and maps, adding: “It’s going to be a huge asset in preparing communities for climate change.”
Microsoft plans to donate a total of 800 terabytes — nearly one petabyte — of cloud storage to 40 climate-change research projects. For communities seeking help, it will customize its free two-yearold “Fetch Climate” tool, which uses satellite and other data to show how an area has changed over time.
Intel plans to host three climate-change “hackathons” this year — in the Chesapeake Bay, New Orleans and San Jose. It will challenge engineering and computer science students to create helpful new apps and tools from existing federal data.
The new data initiative is “an important step to provide this information to users,” says Vicki Arroyo, executive director of Georgetown Climate Center, a non-partisan group. Yet, she says while data are necessary, communities tell her group that they need data in easily accessible and understandable formats.