Click anywhere on earth to see how the water balance is changing over time. This app is based on data from GLDAS version 2.1, which uses weather observations like temperature, humidity, and rainfall to run the Noah land surface model. This model estimates how much of the rain becomes runoff, how much evaporates, and how much infiltrates into the soil. These output variables, calculated every three hours, are aggregated into monthly averages, giving us a record of the hydrologic cycle going all the way back to January 2000. Because the model is run with 0.25 degree spatial resolution (~30 km), these data should only be used for regional analysis. A specific farm or other small area might experience very different conditions than the region around it, especially because human influences like irrigation are not included.This app can also be seen as a useful template for sharing other climate datasets. If you would like to customize it for your own organization, or use it as a starting point for your own scientific application, the source code is available on github for anyone to use.
