Climate Variant: Full Implementation Plan

Current State

Critical flaw in existing seeder: seed-climate-anomalies.mjs uses a 30-day rolling window as its own baseline. It compares "last 7 days" vs "previous 23 days" — not against 30-year climate normals. This produces anomaly numbers that are internally consistent but climatologically meaningless (e.g., a heat wave during a hot month won't appear anomalous if the prior 3 weeks were equally hot).

Target State: 6 Data Layers

Layer 1: Climate Anomalies (EXISTING — fix + expand)

Fix first: Replace 30-day rolling baseline with 30-year ERA5 climatological normals via Copernicus Climate Data Store or Open-Meteo's historical endpoint with proper reference period (1991–2020 WMO standard).

Correct approach using Open-Meteo:

// Reference period: same calendar month, 1991-2020 (30-year WMO normal)
// Step 1: Fetch current 7-day mean for zone
// Step 2: Fetch historical 30-year monthly mean for same month
//         using open-meteo archive: start_date=1991-01-01 end_date=2020-12-31, aggregate monthly
// Step 3: anomaly = current - historical_mean

Expand zones: Current 15 zones are geopolitically focused. Add climate-specific zones:

• Arctic (70°N, 0°E) — sea ice proxy
• Greenland (72°N, -42°W) — ice sheet melt
• Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (-78°S, -100°W)
• Tibetan Plateau (31°N, 91°E) — third pole
• Congo Basin (-1°N, 24°E) — largest tropical forest after Amazon
• Coral Triangle (-5°S, 128°E) — reef bleaching proxy (sea temp)
• North Atlantic (55°N, -30°W) — AMOC slowdown signal

Bump cache key to climate:anomalies:v2 to avoid stale %-based precipitation anomalies being misread as millimeters.

Layer 2: CO2 & Greenhouse Gas Monitoring (NEW)

What: Real atmospheric CO2 concentration + trend + annual growth rate. The foundational number behind all climate change.

Sources:

• NOAA GML Mauna Loa (no key, free):
  • Daily CO2: https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_daily_mlo.txt
  • Weekly averages: https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_weekly_mlo.txt
  • Monthly: https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt
• NOAA global average (not just Mauna Loa):
  • https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_gl.txt
• Methane (CH4): https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/ch4/ch4_mm_gl.txt
• Nitrous oxide (N2O): https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/n2o/n2o_mm_gl.txt

What to compute:

• Current ppm (today/this week)
• YoY change (ppm/year growth rate)
• Pre-industrial baseline: 280 ppm
• Paris Agreement "safe" level: 450 ppm (1.5°C budget)
• Days since CO2 exceeded 400 ppm (crossed May 2013)

Redis key: climate:co2-monitoring:v1 Seed script: seed-co2-monitoring.mjs Cache TTL: 259200 (72h — 3x daily interval gold standard) Proto RPC: GetCo2Monitoring

message Co2Monitoring {
  double current_ppm = 1;           // latest daily/weekly reading
  double year_ago_ppm = 2;
  double annual_growth_rate = 3;    // ppm/year
  double pre_industrial_baseline = 4; // 280.0 (hardcoded)
  double monthly_average = 5;
  repeated Co2DataPoint trend_12m = 6;  // monthly readings, last 12 months
  double methane_ppb = 7;
  double nitrous_oxide_ppb = 8;
  int64 measured_at = 9;
  string station = 10;  // "Mauna Loa, Hawaii"
}
message Co2DataPoint {
  string month = 1;   // "YYYY-MM"
  double ppm = 2;
  double anomaly = 3; // year-over-year delta vs same calendar month, in ppm
}

Layer 3: Global Disaster Alerts (NEW — reuse existing seeder data)

What: Real-time disaster events with severity scoring. GDACS already runs in the natural events seeder — expose it as a climate layer too, plus add additional disaster sources.

CRITICAL: Reuse natural:events:v1 Redis key data — don't re-seed. Just expose GDACS + wildfire + earthquake data through a climate-domain RPC that filters for climate-relevant events: floods, storms, droughts, wildfires, heat waves.

Additional sources for climate-specific disaster data:

• ReliefWeb API (no key): https://api.reliefweb.int/v1/disasters?filter[field]=primary_type&filter[value]=FL (floods)
  • Disaster types: FL (flood), TC (tropical cyclone), DR (drought), HT (heat wave), WF (wildfire)
  • Returns: disaster name, country, date, GLIDE number, status (alert/ongoing/past)
• EMDAT EM-DAT (requires registration — use public export): https://www.emdat.be/
  • Use: pre-downloaded static dataset for historical context (annual aggregates)
• NOAA Storm Prediction Center: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk_cat.nolhtml (US only)

Redis key: climate:disasters:v1 Seed script: seed-climate-disasters.mjs Cache TTL: 21600 (6h — ReliefWeb updates multiple times daily) Proto RPC: ListClimateDisasters

message ClimateDisaster {
  string id = 1;
  string type = 2;          // "flood" | "cyclone" | "drought" | "wildfire" | "heatwave" | "earthquake"
  string name = 3;
  string country = 4;
  string country_code = 5;
  double lat = 6;
  double lng = 7;
  string severity = 8;      // "green" | "orange" | "red" (GDACS scale) or "low"/"medium"/"high"
  int64 started_at = 9;
  string status = 10;       // "alert" | "ongoing" | "past"
  int32 affected_population = 11;
  string source = 12;       // "GDACS" | "ReliefWeb" | "NASA FIRMS"
  string source_url = 13;
}

Layer 4: Air Quality & Pollution (NEW)

What: Global PM2.5, AQI, ozone, NO2 readings — direct output of fossil fuel combustion and climate feedback loops.

Note: This layer is SHARED with the Health variant (health:air-quality:v1). Climate domain gets the same data but a different RPC focused on pollution sources and trends rather than health risk.

Sources:

• OpenAQ API v3 (OPENAQ_API_KEY): https://api.openaq.org/v3/locations?limit=1000&parameters_id=2
  • Measurements: PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, CO, SO2, BC
  • 12,000+ stations
• WAQI API (WAQI_API_KEY): city aggregates + dominant pollutant
• Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) (free, no key for basic):
  • Global forecast: https://ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/api/v2/ (requires CDS API key)
  • Alternative: CAMS Near-Real-Time: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/charts/packages/nrta/
• EPA AirNow (US): https://www.airnowapi.org/aq/observation/zipCode/current/?format=application/json&zipCode={zip}&API_KEY={key}

Redis key: climate:air-quality:v1 (mirrors health:air-quality:v1 — same seed, separate key) Seed script: Shared with health: seed-health-air-quality.mjs writes both keys Cache TTL: 3600 (1h) Proto RPC: ListAirQualityData

Layer 5: Sea Level, Ice & Ocean Data (NEW)

What: The long-term physical indicators of climate change — sea level rise, Arctic sea ice, ocean heat.

Sources:

• NSIDC Sea Ice Index (no key):
  • Daily extent: https://masie_web.apps.nsidc.org/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/north/daily/data/N_seaice_extent_daily_v3.0.csv
  • Monthly anomaly: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/
• NOAA Sea Level Trends (no key):
  • Gauge data API: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/mdapi/latest/webapi/stations.json?type=waterlevels
  • Trend endpoint: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends.html
• CSIRO/AVISO global mean sea level (no key, public):
  • https://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/sl_data_cmar.html
• NOAA OHC (Ocean Heat Content) — Argo float composite:
  • https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/WOA23/DATA/
• Copernicus Climate Change Service sea surface temperature anomaly:
  • https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api/v2/ (requires free CDS key)

Redis key: climate:ocean-ice:v1 Seed script: seed-climate-ocean-ice.mjs Cache TTL: 86400 (24h — daily/weekly satellite updates) Proto RPC: GetOceanIceData

message OceanIceData {
  // Arctic sea ice
  double arctic_extent_mkm2 = 1;         // million km²
  double arctic_extent_anomaly_mkm2 = 2; // vs 1981-2010 median
  string arctic_trend = 3;               // "record_low" | "below_average" | "average" | "above_average"

  // Global mean sea level
  double sea_level_mm_above_1993 = 4;    // mm above 1993 satellite era baseline
  double sea_level_annual_rise_mm = 5;   // mm/year current rate

  // Ocean heat content
  double ohc_0_700m_zj = 6;             // zettajoules, 0-700m depth
  double sst_anomaly_c = 7;             // global SST anomaly vs 1971-2000

  int64 measured_at = 8;
  repeated IceTrendPoint ice_trend_12m = 9;
}
message IceTrendPoint {
  string month = 1;
  double extent_mkm2 = 2;
  double anomaly_mkm2 = 3;
}

Layer 6: Climate News Intelligence (NEW — news layer)

What: Aggregated news from authoritative climate sources with AI tagging for events, policies, records.

Sources (RSS, no keys):

• Carbon Brief (10min): https://www.carbonbrief.org/feed
• The Guardian Environment (10min): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-crisis/rss
• ReliefWeb Disasters (10min): https://reliefweb.int/updates/rss.xml?content=reports&country=0&theme=4590
• NASA Earth Observatory: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/feeds/earth-observatory.rss
• NOAA Climate News: https://www.noaa.gov/taxonomy/term/28/rss
• Phys.org Earth Science: https://phys.org/rss-feed/earth-news/earth-sciences/
• Copernicus/ECMWF: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/rss
• Inside Climate News: https://insideclimatenews.org/feed/
• Climate Central: https://www.climatecentral.org/rss

Redis key: climate:news-intelligence:v1 Seed script: seed-climate-news.mjs (or relay loop) Cache TTL: 1800 (30min) Proto RPC: ListClimateNews

Seed Script Schedule (Railway Cron)

Proto Service Extension

service ClimateService {
  rpc ListClimateAnomalies(...)  // EXISTING (fix baseline)
  rpc GetCo2Monitoring(GetCo2MonitoringRequest) returns (GetCo2MonitoringResponse) {
    option (sebuf.http.config) = {path: "/get-co2-monitoring", method: HTTP_METHOD_GET};
  }
  rpc ListClimateDisasters(ListClimateDisastersRequest) returns (ListClimateDisastersResponse) {
    option (sebuf.http.config) = {path: "/list-climate-disasters", method: HTTP_METHOD_GET};
  }
  rpc ListAirQualityData(ListAirQualityDataRequest) returns (ListAirQualityDataResponse) {
    option (sebuf.http.config) = {path: "/list-air-quality-data", method: HTTP_METHOD_GET};
  }
  rpc GetOceanIceData(GetOceanIceDataRequest) returns (GetOceanIceDataResponse) {
    option (sebuf.http.config) = {path: "/get-ocean-ice-data", method: HTTP_METHOD_GET};
  }
  rpc ListClimateNews(ListClimateNewsRequest) returns (ListClimateNewsResponse) {
    option (sebuf.http.config) = {path: "/list-climate-news", method: HTTP_METHOD_GET};
  }
}

Cache Keys to Register

Per AGENTS.md, adding a new seeded key requires changes in 4 files:

1. server/_shared/cache-keys.ts — add to BOOTSTRAP_CACHE_KEYS:

co2Monitoring: 'climate:co2-monitoring:v1',
climateDisasters: 'climate:disasters:v1',
climateAirQuality: 'climate:air-quality:v1',
oceanIce: 'climate:ocean-ice:v1',
climateNews: 'climate:news-intelligence:v1',
climateZoneNormals: 'climate:zone-normals:v1',

2. api/health.js — add each data key (not zone-normals) to the BOOTSTRAP_KEYS array (startup hydration on deploy)

3. api/mcp.ts — add keys to the get_climate_data tool's _cacheKeys array (see MCP Tool section below)

4. Each seed script — must call runSeed() with the correct canonical key so it writes seed-meta:<domain>:<name> automatically. The seed-meta key is required for health monitoring (_seedMetaKey in the MCP tool).

MCP Tool: Update get_climate_data

Replace current entry in api/mcp.ts:

{
  name: 'get_climate_data',
  description: 'Climate intelligence: temperature/precipitation anomalies (vs 30-year WMO normals), atmospheric CO2 trend (NOAA Mauna Loa), global disaster alerts (GDACS/ReliefWeb), air quality (OpenAQ/WAQI), sea level rise and Arctic ice extent (NSIDC/NOAA), and climate news.',
  inputSchema: {
    type: 'object',
    properties: {
      layer: { type: 'string', description: '"anomalies" | "co2" | "disasters" | "air-quality" | "ocean-ice" | "news" | empty for all' },
      region: { type: 'string', description: 'Region or zone name filter' },
    },
    required: [],
  },
  _cacheKeys: [
    'climate:anomalies:v2',
    'climate:co2-monitoring:v1',
    'climate:disasters:v1',
    'climate:air-quality:v1',
    'climate:ocean-ice:v1',
    'climate:news-intelligence:v1',
  ],
  _seedMetaKey: 'seed-meta:climate:co2-monitoring',
  _maxStaleMin: 2880,
}

External API Keys Required

OpenAQ now requires OPENAQ_API_KEY. WAQI_API_KEY is still optional, and CDS_API_KEY is only needed for CAMS/ERA5 advanced queries.

Priority Fix: Anomaly Baseline

Before any new layer work, fix seed-climate-anomalies.mjs:

// WRONG (current): compare last 7d vs previous 23d of same 30d window
// RIGHT: compare last 7d vs 30-year monthly mean (1991–2020 WMO standard)

// Implementation: fetch Open-Meteo archive with start_date=1991-01-01 end_date=2020-12-31,
// aggregate daily values by calendar month to get monthly mean per zone.
// IMPORTANT: use the full 1991-2020 period — do NOT use a shorter "proxy" window
// (e.g., 2014-2023) as a warm decade would systematically understate current anomalies.
const NORMALS_KEY = 'climate:zone-normals:v1';
const NORMALS_TTL = 30 * 86400; // 30 days — recalculate monthly

The 30-year normal fetch should run as a separate monthly seed and cache in climate:zone-normals:v1, then seed-climate-anomalies.mjs reads that as its baseline. This is one fetch per zone per year instead of per run.

Frontend Variant: climate.worldmonitor.app

Add to src/config/variant.ts:

climate: {
  defaultPanels: ['climate-anomalies', 'co2-monitoring', 'climate-disasters', 'ocean-ice', 'air-quality', 'climate-news'],
  mapLayers: ['climate-anomalies-heatmap', 'disasters', 'air-quality', 'wildfire'],
  theme: { primaryColor: '#00AA55', accentColor: '#FF6600' },
  refreshIntervals: { anomalies: 3 * 60, co2: 24 * 60, disasters: 6 * 60, news: 30 },
  i18n: { title: 'Climate Intelligence', subtitle: 'Atmospheric, Ocean & Disaster Monitoring' },
}

Implementation Order

1. Fix seed-climate-anomalies.mjs baseline — high priority, improves existing data quality immediately
2. seed-co2-monitoring.mjs — NOAA GML text file parsing, no key, 30min effort, high impact (single most important climate number)
3. seed-climate-news.mjs — RSS aggregation, no key, fast win
4. seed-climate-disasters.mjs — ReliefWeb API (no key) + reuse GDACS from natural seeder
5. seed-health-air-quality.mjs — OpenAQ (OPENAQ_API_KEY), writes both health:air-quality:v1 and climate:air-quality:v1
6. seed-climate-ocean-ice.mjs — NSIDC CSV parsing (no key), daily data
7. seed-climate-zone-normals.mjs — one-time + monthly refresh, feeds anomaly baseline
8. Proto + handler additions for each new RPC
9. Update MCP tool get_climate_data with new cache keys
10. Hostname variant config climate.worldmonitor.app