Ancient Earth Globe
How might we better visually present a heterogeneous block of time?<p>Consider "today"'s coastline. Earlier today, a mere 15 kya towards Last Glacial Maximum, Florida was twice as thick, and the Boston coast was down past Long Island NY. So how do you non-deceptively show a coastline for "today"? Perhaps use such low resolution that these differences aren't visible? Use an aphysical elevation color scheme which deemphasizes water height? Use timelapse averaging (if a single frame was exposed for 100 ky, then ...)?<p>Years ago NASA did a global clouds-removed monthly image set. You can see the snow line advancing and retreating with the seasons. See changes in vegetation. Months look very different. What best represents the year? An average of them? The preceding year had different weather. How can the preceding decade be nicely represented? The preceding 100 y, 1 ky, 10 ky?<p>Clouds are a major visual component our planet. Their patterns change with seasons, with years, with climates, with topographies. How might you show this year's clouds? This decades? This 100 ky? This 1 My?<p>Climate. Consider the insanely desiccated Pangaean central equatorial desert. In OP, it's colored green based on height. I've seen it shown overlayed with swirls of seemingly cumulus clouds.<p>Science education graphics have the unfortunate property of combining some aspects done with great care, with many others done with great artistic bogosity, and students left with no way to sort what is which. How might paleoglobe visuals be improved?