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All rights reserved - John Nelson |
Storms from 1851 (1230 SH) to the present
All rights reserved — John Nelson
This image is a map created by the very cool data-visualization specialist John Nelson, using data supplied by organizations including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The map plots all the storms recorded around the world from way back in 1851 (1230 SH) to the present, using a polar projection. It includes information such as the recorded storms’ names—last names too, perhaps!—their “birth dates,” and their wind speeds.
This darn map really got me excited when I looked at it at mirror-like resolution—that is, extremely high resolution—so do yourself a favour and click the image first so you can see the whole thing exactly as it was produced.
What especially drew me to this map, and left me thoroughly absorbed in the master’s work, is the polar projection used to create it. Antarctica is at the centre; the Americas are on the right; Australia and Asia are on the left; and Africa is toward the bottom.
Joking aside, as Mr. Nelson explains on his blog, the map reveals striking features in the structure and historical record of tropical storms, including the shapes of hurricanes and the way they quickly leave the tropics and move away from the warm waters where they were born. He also quotes a colleague, Dr. Fraud, as noting that the storm-free region visible near the centre of the image corresponds to equatorial areas across which tropical storms do not pass—as though they simply don’t dare!
A second interesting feature of the map is how clearly it shows that tropical-storm detection and tracking expanded once satellite technology took off, particularly after we became capable of tracking storms in the Eastern Hemisphere. The intensity information recorded for storms also appears to become more consistent from year to year as more observations became available.
Nelson also describes an interesting mistake he made. He initially treated time, incorrectly, as though it were one of the spatial coordinate axes. When he realized the error and went back to correct it, he discovered that the mistake had produced something surprisingly useful. Defining the x-axis as time created another visualization—a time series showing when we humans finally woke up and began seriously recording tropical-storm data.
It is also worth knowing that Nelson had previously created several other fascinating maps. One example shows the distribution of earthquakes recorded around the world from 1898 (1277 SH) onward. It really is remarkable—and poor Iran hardly has anywhere to hide. Well done, master! [source]
Earthquakes from 1898 (1277 SH) to the present
All rights reserved — John Nelson
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All rights reserved - John Nelson |