Calling all developing nations, underfunded scientists, and satellite imagery hobbyists. Care for a free "planetary-scale platform for environmental data & analysis"?
That's what search giant Google calls its Google Earth Engine, unveiled to coincide with COP16, the International Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancún, Mexico.
The Earth Engine, according to Google's press release, will allow researchers to study Earth's surface, especially deforestation, by trawling through a database containing trillions of data points from satellite images collected over the past 25 years and by viewing results with the Google Earth viewer.
The new product is Google's contribution to REDD, the idea that rich nations can compensate poorer countries for saving their forests. Deforestation accounts for a large slice of global greenhouse emissions. However, to implement a REDD scheme, researchers and national governments need better ways to accurately monitor carbon stocks.
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