CARMA in Google Earth
Browsing power plant emissions just got easier, thanks to a new version of CARMA that you can explore using Google Earth. Read on for background, instructions, tips and screenshots of CARMA in Google Earth.
Or download the carma.kml file to get started in Google Earth right away.
According to Google’s site, “Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky.” This bird’s-eye view is great for comparing emissions from different countries and gives you a unique perspective of how the power sector looks worldwide. Plus, it’s much cooler than tables of data! We’re very grateful to Simon Ilyushchenko for putting this together in his spare time, and for working with us to make sure everything works just right. The CARMA team takes responsibility for any remaining issues, so please email us if you see any problems.
Note: The icon representing many of the plants in CARMA actually appears over the city that hosts the plant. This means that you won’t necessarily see the plant directly under the icon. This is a limitation of the data we used to build CARMA.org.
To get started, make sure you have Google Earth installed. You can download it from earth.google.com. Then download carma.kml and open it in Google Earth (either double-click on the file, or open it from the ‘File’ menu in Google Earth). This file points to the data files on our server that Google Earth needs to show you different views of the world as you fly around. When you first open the file, be sure to read the instructions to learn about seeing different years and other features.
-
- Look for instructions off the coast of New York City
-
- Eurafrasia from space
-
- South America has relatively low emissions intensity
-
- Chinese coal power plants + the Three Gorges hydropower plant
-
- Emissions intensity in Europe varies widely
