This project was developed for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025, under the theme "Celebration of TERRA Data."
It visualizes MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) data from NASA’s Terra satellite, focusing on Carbon Monoxide (CO) Total Column between 2021–2025.
The goal is to make satellite data interactive, educational, and accessible to everyone.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is an atmospheric pollutant that affects air quality and climate. Understanding its spatial and temporal distribution helps scientists monitor pollution sources and study Earth's atmosphere.
We want to create a visual and educational tool that shows this data in an intuitive way.
We used NASA's MOPITT Level 3 Gridded Monthly Mean Data (HDF5 format).
Each dataset was processed to extract and average day/night observations for:
RetrievedCOTotalColumnDayRetrievedCOTotalColumnNightRetrievedSurfaceTemperatureDayRetrievedSurfaceTemperatureNight
We also converted the .h5 files into .json files each month to power the web visualization.
Our website presents:
- 🌎 An interactive 3D globe showing CO concentration using color-coded particles.
- 📊 Dynamic data visualization that updates across time (2021–2025).
- 🧠 Educational content explaining MOPITT, CO measurements, and the importance of monitoring Earth’s atmosphere.
- 🔍 User controls to explore specific years.
Team Name: Spotlight
Challenge Category: Celebration of Terra Data
Members:
This website is a simplified prototype — a blueprint for how MOPITT data could be explored interactively.
Given the time constraints, we focused on the core globe visualization and dataset integration.
- Enhance the UI/UX with responsive design and smoother transitions.
- Add interactive legends and tooltips to inspect CO levels in specific areas.
- Optimize data loading and performance for larger datasets.
- Integrate additional datasets for richer environmental context.
- Improve educational storytelling elements.
- Allow users to rotate, zoom, and explore the globe interactively.
- Minor visual wobble in globe rotation due to tilt + Y-axis rotation — can be improved in future versions.
- Improve particle mapping quality: better handling of missing or fill values, and improved color scaling.
Data processing:
- Python
Frontend:
- HTML / CSS / JavaScript
- Three.js
- Clone the Repo
git clone git@github.com:goncalooliveirasilva/nasa-space-apps-2025.git
cd nasa-space-apps-2025- Install dependencies and start
npm install
npm run dev- NASA Earthdata - MOPITT
- University of Toronto
- NASA Visible Earth
- Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Data Portal
- Terra satellite image
- Aqua satellite image
- Aura satellite image
Built with curiosity and code during NASA Space Apps Challenge 2025 🌍✨