Pollution
Greenhouse gases have become a major concern around the world, which has instigated their constant monitor and control. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is North America's first and only legally binding, rule-based emissions trading market. It is also the world's only global market for emissions trading based on all six greenhouse gases. Since trading began in 2003, the CCX has grown to ninety (90) voluntary members, which include private companies, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and U.S. cities. The CCX is a commodities market based on a straightforward cap-and-trade concept: the cap is an emission limit imposed on all the members; the trade is for members who exceed the emissions' cap to remain in compliance. Those members exceeding the cap can buy credits from those under the cap. Thus, the system manages to collectively lower overall emissions.
NF treats the CCX in the same manner as other investment markets. It gathers and analyzes emissions data and periodically produces trade alerts for investors and speculators.
The NF Cube can be used to show not only real-time data and history correlations between members in CCX market, but also their relationships to other data sources, such as weather systems.
Weather
NF is an excellent guide to regional weather prediction and storm tracking.
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched a new generation of geostationary satellites. The first of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) was launched on April 13, 1994, and since then the GOES-9, GOES-10, and GOES-11 satellites have been added. This new generation of satellites views the earth 100 percent of the time in a geosynchronous plane approximately 35,800 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth. GOES satellites stay in a fixed position, high enough for a full earth view, and use visual and infrared imagery to constantly watch over the atmospheric "triggers" of severe weather conditions. They also detect cloud cover, wind conditions, ocean currents, fog distribution, storm circulation, snow and ice melt, and the critical early warning of forest fires.
In the United States, GOES satellites are a mainstay of weather forecasting and the backbone of short-term forecasting. The real-time weather data produced by GOES satellites, along with data from Doppler radar and automated surface observations, greatly aids weather forecasters to determine the severity of thunderstorms, winter storms, flash floods, hurricanes, and other dangerous environmental conditions. Thus, the GOES satellites have great value in lowering environmental risks to property and humans.
Using data from the GOES satellites, NF is useful for monitoring and analyzing several of the following weather elements concurrently and can produce periodic alerts about their directions and magnitudes:
- Atmospheric Motion
- tropospheric motion
- Atmospheric Properties
- temperature and moisture profile
- total column water vapor and ozone
- stability
- aerosol
- Surface Properties
- land and sea surface temperature
- albedo
- Clouds
- coverage
- top heights
- emissivity
- phase
