When it comes to air pollution, visualisations and graphs can be some of the best ways to share data. They are more interesting for viewers to look at and tend to hold more information than text alone.

One such fantastic visualisation is Earth Nullschool. This map is presented in a way similar to Google Earth in that it’s a globe which you can rotate and manipulate. However, what it offers that Google Earth doesn’t is a fantastic pollutant overlay map.

By clicking on the hamburger menu at the bottom left of the screen, users can select which mode they want to see. While there is a range of modes to play with and try, the most interesting to us were the ‘chem’ and ‘particulates’ modes. 

Under the chem menu, you will find overlays for carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Under the particulates menu, you’ll be able to find dust PM1, PM2.5, PM10, and more. By selecting any of these pollutants, you will be met with a highly detailed map showing the worldwide concentrations of that pollutant.

If you aren’t a fan of the globe, the map layout can be changed as well as what is animated. This allows the user to receive a wealth of information which is both current and past, about local air quality as well as air quality all around the world. 

If you want to learn more about the concentrations of different airborne pollutants, we recommend checking out the Earth Nullschool map. It’s a fantastic resource for not only viewing air quality, but learning about the impacts of factors such as temperature and relative humidity on airborne pollutants.