This document is intended as a guide to get you started with the Atlas. You may work your way through the text below, or you prefer
a more visual approach, try our introductory movie which walks you through the basic functions of the Atlas Data Visualization Engine.

How do I find the Earth System Atlas Data Visualization Engine?

It couldn't be simpler! Just click here. There is also a link to the Earth System Atlas Data Engine (ADE) on every page.

Initial Choices

Begin by selecting from the following menu on the ADE front page:

Data

Navigation

Data Manipulation

Which data sets are currently available?

Data

These are listed in the dropdown menu located directly above the map. We are still in the process of populating the menu with data sets, so that some categories are planned but not currently available. These show up as gray boxes, and the name of the data category disappears when the cursor hovers over the name of any pending data set.

Land Surface Elevation Bathymetry Blue Marble Population Densities Land Cover Crop Area Major Crops Vegetation LSWI Deforestation Fires Dust Soil pH Nitrogen Loads

Atmosphere Composition Pressure Temperature Humidity Winds Vorticity Clouds Lighting Aerosols

Oceans Sea Surface Temperature Currents Human Impact Marine Animals El Nino

Climate Precipitation Paleo Anthropogenic Climate

Hydrology Run-off, North America only Discharge, North America only

Base Data Country Mask Cell Area

What if I only want to view data over a selected area instead of globally?

There are numerous ways to select a region of interest. The most straightforward is to use the Navigation dropdown menu (located to the right of the Data menu) which allows you to select a continent.

Navigation

World	Europe
Africa	West Asia
North America	East Asia
South America	Australia

There are also zoom in and zoom out buttons located to the right of the map.

View entire planet
Zoom in
Zoom Out
Pan
View previous map
View next map

Alternatively, hold down the space bar and drag the cursor over a region of interest on the map. This will create a red-shaed box. When you release the space bar, the map will display only the region you have selected.

To the right of these buttons is a small map which serves as a nativation reference, identifying the location of the area displayed on the larger map.

Mouseover Function

Because the data stored in the ESA are digital, it is possible to load latitude, longitude and the data value at each pixel on the large map as the cursor passed over it. Latitude and longitude values are available in mouseover mode when the box labeled Use floating coord/data reader (located beneath the small navigation map) is checked. Data values are added when the box labeled Data reader (located above the large map) is checked.

What is MetaData and why would I want to know about it?

MetaData essentially represents the history of a data set, the when, where, how and why the measurements were collected, the instrument(s) used to make the observations (if applicable), how the data have been processed and corrected (if applicable), how they have been modeled, and so on. Also included is a list of references citing where the data have been used in technical and scientific publications.

In addition to the traditional metadata, data contained within the Earth System Atlas will also be accompanied by articles written especially for the Atlas, some of which will appear on other websites such as in the Encyclopedia of Earth.

DATA MANIPULATION TOOLS

One of the most innovative features of the Earth System Atlas Data Visualization Engine is its ability to manipulate data sets in fairly sophisticated ways, with the results delivered through a simple web browser. Data sets may be queried to extract specific information. Data sets may even be combined. The results of these manipulations will be displayed on the map, and downloaded in ASCII format.

To open the data manipulation tool box, click on the yellow button in the top menu. The manipulation tool can also be opened by clicking on the arrive at the left end of the pink bar beneath the main map, labeled Open Data Calculator Section.

Data Manipulation

OR

The first thing to notice is the array of radio button that allows you to navigate to different categories of data, just as you did using the gray data button located above the main map. The choices are Land Characteristics, Ocean, Climate, Socio, Hydrography and Other, where Other represents Base Data such as latitude, longitude, etc. Each radio button selection will populate the pink and gray table with the appropriate data sets. Please note that this segregation into different groups does not prevent you using data from several different groups in one calculation.