Earth ID: 4972

Increasingly Dangerous Climate for Agricultural Workers

Visualizations by Mark SubbaRao Released on March 9, 2022

A warming climate will create challenges for agricultural workers. This visualization shows the increased number of days per year that are expected to have a NOAA Heat Index greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit based on two different climate scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5). The visualization also plots the number of days exceeding this threshold for five select locations in the United States. The map projection in Robinson and the color map is cividis.

A warming climate will create challenges for agricultural workers as well as the crops which they grow. This visualization shows the increased number of days per year that are expected to have a NOAA Heat Index greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit, a threshold that NOAA labels ‘dangerous’ given that people struggle to regulate their body temperatures at this level of heat and humidity. These results are from an ensemble of 22 global climate models from the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) bias-adjusted by the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX GDDP). Two projections are visualized, one for a moderate emissions climate scenerio (SSP2-4.5) and one for a high emmissions climate scenerio (SSP5-8.5).

A warming climate will create challenges for agricultural workers. This visualization shows the increased number of days per year that are expected to have a NOAA Heat Index greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit based on two different climate scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5). The map projection in Robinson and the color map is cividis.

This baseline visualization shows the average number of days per year that have had to have a NOAA Heat Index greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit over the period 2010-2014. The map projection is Robinson and the color map is viridis.

Visualization Credits

Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC): Lead Visualizer
Alex C. Ruane (NASA/GISS): Lead Scientist
Meridel M. Phillips (NASA GISS): Scientist
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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Keywords:
DLESE >> Agricultural science
SVS >> Climate
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Agriculture
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Climate Change
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0