When you hear the phrase “Track the Hottest Spots ,” it might conjure images of bustling cities or desert landscapes. But there is more to being the hottest place than simply having hot weather. The Earth’s tilt and its orbit around the sun influence when and where record temperatures occur. Climate change is also contributing to warming trends everywhere.
In these circumstances, it’s important to be able to pinpoint the hottest spots on Earth and understand their impact. But it can be challenging to tell whether spatial patterns in your data are real, and not just a result of random chance. For this reason, you can use statistical methods like Find Hot Spots to determine if there is significant clustering in your data.
Track the Hottest Spots: Where to Go Next
Aibing Li, a seismologist at the University of Houston, was working on a reconstruction of how tectonic plates move when she discovered an unusual pattern in earthquake wave data from northeastern North America. The pattern suggested that a hotspot once sat under today’s Lake Superior and shifted as the North American continent moved over it. A line of volcanoes formed as the plate moved over the hotspot, much like a line of melted wax would form as you slowly pull a sheet of paper over a burning candle.
In GIS, you can analyze your data to identify hot spots using tools like Find Hot Spots and other feature analysis tools. You can also visualize the results of your analysis on a heat map. The heat map can help you discover patterns in your data that you might not otherwise have noticed, such as a cluster of sites with higher traffic than their neighbors. You can then use the heat map to identify potential sources of congestion or bottlenecks on your network.
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