Metriq PRISM Laboratory
Drag to turn the globe, scroll to zoom, and click any marker for details.

Finding your area

Air quality—modeled
Weather—Current
Fire hot spots—within 100 km
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Alerts
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Earthquakes
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Nearest reef station
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Explore a region
Sources ↗

About Live Earth

Live Earth is a free interactive globe from Metriq PRISM Laboratory. It brings together satellite observations, weather-model output and ocean data to show ecological conditions around the world, with each layer updated on its own schedule. Search for a place to see its local conditions, open Events for recent reports, or select a layer to explore the globe.

Fire hot spots
Heat detected by NASA satellites (FIRMS) in the past 24 hours, with new passes every few hours. Each hot spot is a pixel about 375 m wide; farms, industry and controlled burns also register.
Reef stations
NOAA Coral Reef Watch stations, coloured by heat-stress alert level. Updated daily.
Tree cover loss
Annual tree cover loss from Hansen / University of Maryland, with Global Forest Watch deforestation alerts when you zoom in. Alerts update daily. The data do not identify why trees were lost.
Coral heat stress
NOAA Coral Reef Watch heat stress over tropical oceans, in °C-weeks. At 4 or more, bleaching is likely, though heat stress alone does not confirm it. Updated daily.
Jet streams
Winds about 10 km up, from the latest run of the NOAA GFS weather model. Updated every 3 hours.
Ocean currents
Surface currents estimated from satellite measurements of sea height, from NOAA CoastWatch. Updated daily; the newest data are about 2 days old.
Vessel signal gaps
Global Fishing Watch records of fishing vessels whose AIS position signal stopped near protected or foreign waters, sometimes called dark vessels. Coming soon. A gap does not show why a signal stopped and is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Readings can be delayed, and satellites cannot see everything. In an emergency, follow your local officials. Sources and licences

Explore a region

Lesson ideas

Choose a layer and a place, then ask students to use the map and the date in its legend as evidence.

Middle school

What does a fire hot spot mark? Turn on Fire hot spots and zoom to South Sudan. What does each dot record, and could several dots belong to one fire?

What does coral heat stress measure? Turn on Coral heat stress near the Great Barrier Reef and click a point. What do °C-weeks add up, and does a high reading confirm that coral has bleached?

What can a satellite miss? Pick a fire or tree cover loss mark. Name one thing it records and one thing it cannot tell you.

High school

Compare two regions. Use the Events list to compare fire hot spot counts in two regions over the same 24 hours. Why are these detections and not a count of separate fires?

Compare two reef stations. Turn on Reef stations and choose two in the same region. Record each heat-stress value and date. What would you still need to observe to know whether bleaching occurred?

Describe tree cover loss without a cause. Turn on Tree cover loss in the southern Amazon and compare two cells. Describe the pattern, then list the evidence you would need before proposing a cause.

Read a flow pattern. Turn on Ocean currents near the Gulf Stream or Jet streams over the North Atlantic. Trace the direction of flow and compare brighter and dimmer areas.

College

How do observation gaps affect a comparison? Compare fire hot spots in two regions, then list how cloud cover, satellite passes and data delays could change what each region shows.

Heat stress and bleaching. Design a test of whether heat stress preceded bleaching at a reef. What observations, timing and comparison sites would you need?

What can an AIS gap establish? When vessel signal gaps are available, choose one and read its time and place. What does the record show, and what further evidence would explain why the signal stopped?

The share button beside the zoom controls does the same.

Data sources and methods

Land and water: Natural Earth (public domain). Night map: Solar System Scope, CC BY 4.0 (resized and compressed, via three.js r180). Imagery and clouds are a static composite. Stars are decorative.

Satellite imagery: NASA GIBS, public domain. Close views: EOxCloudless by EOX IT Services GmbH (Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. Coastlines and region names: Natural Earth, public domain. Coastlines are generalized and fade at the closest scale. The 2016 mosaic is a basemap; event markers carry their own dates.

Forest: Hansen / UMD / Google / USGS / NASA, CC BY 4.0. Reef, coral heat stress and forest alert layers update daily; yearly tree cover loss is an annual dataset. Credits & licences ↗

Readings can be delayed. In an emergency, follow your local officials.