CaffeineJunkieXL | Polar Opposites
Team Updates
The Challenge
https://2018.spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/icy...
Design a data analysis and/or visualization tool to show the spatial and temporal changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice to a general audience.
Our Solution
Our solution aims at raising awareness amongst the general audience about the effects of global warming, that are very pronounced in the polar regions. The data available in the cited links are provided in real time. However, the data is not comprehensible to a layman. Our aim was to present the same data in a format that could potentially create an impact on a layman, along with insights into how the alarming decline of the environment could be reverted.
We primarily focus on three different parameters for evaluating the impact of global warming on the polar ice caps:
- Sea ice age
- Sea level
- Polar ice area
Sea ice age and polar ice area data are evaluated over both the Arctic and the Antarctic circles. To impact a layman, the trends over time have been explained, and have been synced with the slider that allows the user to determine the controlling factor.
Additionally, the significance of each parameter has been mentioned, along with the factors that affecting this parameter, thus giving the user additional insight into the kind of data that is being dealt with and how important it is, though it might not apparently be so.
The main interface of the webpage offers facts about global warming and tips to revert the climatic conditions. This is an issue that needs to be identified as a global crisis, since the decline of global warming can only be a collective effort on the part of our species.
We have developed a Web-Based Application using Angular as the frontend and Python + Flask as the backend which was used to extract the data files and for the data preprocessing and then host the processed data to a localhost server. The framework of our application is designed in a way to work with real-time data sent over a server. Even the facts and tips can be received in real-time from the server. We have provided the link to our project’s GitHub repository which contains the source code for the frontend, backend, and the data files that we have used in our solution:
- GitHub Repository Link: https://github.com/adildsw/the-polar-extrapolation
- Python Backend File Link: https://github.com/adildsw/the-polar-extrapolation...
- Data: https://github.com/adildsw/the-polar-extrapolation...
In order to run our project, please follow the steps:
- Clone the provided GitHub repository in your system.
- Browse over to the root of the cloned folder in your system using any terminal.
- Execute the command ng serve. This will start the Web-App server in your system.
- Browse over to the data folder. Execute icey.py using any python interpreter. This will start the Backend server from where the Web-App receives data.
- In any web-browser, head over to https://localhost:4200
Our Interface: Main Menu
Polar Ice Area Panel
Sea Level Panel
Sea Ice Age Panel
Data source links
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/
https://nsidc.org/data/NSIDC-0393
Future Goals
In order to reach out to a wider audience and to strengthen the impact of our application, we additionally intend to incorporate the effect of melting polar ice caps on more relatable factors, such as vegetation and wildlife. The role of phytoplanktons, in particular, could also be incorporated in order to relate polar melts to the atmospheric conditions. Sea level data could also interpreted with an estimate of the coastal regions that are likely to be submerged within a given year. To meet this goal, an extrapolation function could be used to evaluate our preexisting data and to estimate the value of the same within the time span of a few years, with a certain degree of precision.
SpaceApps is a NASA incubator innovation program.