Of the 10 million square miles of northern vegetated lands, 34
to 41 percent showed increases in plant growth (green and blue),
3 to 5 percent showed decreases in plant growth (orange and
red), and 51 to 62 percent showed no changes (yellow) over the
past 30 years. Satellite data in this visualization are from the
AVHRR and MODIS instruments, which contribute to a vegetation
index that allows researchers to track changes in plant growth
over large areas. Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific
Visualization Studio — NASA Warming in Earth's northern
latitudes has shifted vegetation zones 250 to 430 miles farther
north in the past 30 years, according to a NASA analysis of
satellite data. "It's like Winnipeg, Manitoba, moving to
Minneapolis-St. Paul in only 30 years," said co-author Compton
Tucker of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Some of the most drastic changes in vegetation are occurring
along the Arctic coastlines of Alaska, Canada and Russia, the
NASA imagery shows. Wired U.K. reports: