Big Sky, Big Data: Art Made From Atmospheric Science - Facts So Romantic
▻http://nautil.us/blog/big-sky-big-data-art-made-from-atmospheric-science
Many common air pollutants—ozone, various sulfur oxides, and even some particulate matter among them—are completely invisible to the eye. How interesting, then, that the EPA and other environmental organizations around the world, use color scales to communicate information about air quality. The US Air Quality Index, for instance, starts at green, meaning good air quality, moves through yellow and red, then ends at maroon, to mean hazardous air quality. That’s quite straightforward in concept. But if you’re walking along a narrow urban street full of idling cars at rush hour, or passing through an industrial corridor when a tower suddenly lets off ominous clouds of exhaust, an orange AQI warning from the day before may not reflect your local circumstances—the specific mass of air you pull (...)