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Carbon Dioxide Emissions Tracked by Google Earth Layer

February 25, 2009 By Elaine Rundle

Have you ever wanted to know how much carbon dioxide your state or city emits? Vulcan -- a new layer for Google Earth -- is a high-resolution, interactive map of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.

Purdue University led a team of scientists who developed Vulcan, which allows users to view carbon dioxide emissions at the state level, county level or per capita. According to a press release from the university, it also allows users to view the carbon-dioxide emissions by the emitter, such as industrial, commercial, residential and electricity production. Vulcan quantifies burning fossil fuels, such as coal and gasoline, to create the map layer.

The project involved researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and took three years to develop. Vulcan was funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to the press release: "Vulcan integrates data including imagery of the Earth's surface captured by the NASA-built Landsat 5 satellite, carbon dioxide emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy, and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau."

The current information displayed on the map is from 2002, but the researchers will expand the information to include more recent years. Their goal is to add carbon-dioxide information from 1985 to present and then update it every six months.

Purdue University posted a simulation of Vulcan on YouTube that shows how the map layer works.

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Green Summit Features California EPA Secretary, UC Berkeley Director

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The Future of the Desktop in Government

Until recently, there was no alternative to the familiar desktop computer, and its expensive upgrades and maintenance requirements. For cash-strapped local governments, the desktop computer is quickly becoming an unsustainable option for future progress. Now, a technology known as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) offers an alternative. It can be significantly more affordable than buying individual computers for every employee, and it provides similar capability. This paper shows how VDI is the future of the desktop and is a game-changer for local governments.

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