Menu

LASSO

Locating and Selecting Scenarios Online

The LASSO tool guides you step-by-step through the process of identifying and downloading climate change scenarios—or projections—that are relevant to your interest or research question. At each step you will define criteria that will subset climate change information from a much larger archive, with LASSO providing helpful information and suggestions along the way. At the end of the process you will have the option to download maps, figures and GIS-ready spatial data, or use an interactive scatterplot widget to customize or change your choices. You can find supporting documentation for the LASSO tool here.

3 Steps

In just a few minutes, you can have customized maps, scatterplots, and spatial data downloaded to your desktop.

1

DESCRIBE YOUR RESEARCH NEEDS

Study Area

Data Source

Emissions Pathway

Climate Variables

2

SELECT YOUR CLIMATE SCENARIOS

arrow icon depicting three possible pathways
3

DOWNLOAD YOUR MAPS, FIGURES & DATA

icon depicting example map and figure

HOW IT WORKS

1. Describe your research needs

First, LASSO will guide you through a step-by-step process to select the datasets that will be useful to you. LASSO will guide you through a step-by-step process that identifies datasets most relevant to you. LASSO will provide helpful explanations and suggestions along the way.

Study Area

Select your study area, either an EPA Region or one of the contiguous United States.

Data Source

Select the LOCA or BCSD dataset.

Emissions Pathway

Choose either a high or moderate emissions pathway.

Climate Variables

Specify your climate variables, such as temperature, time of year, and time period.

2. Select your climate scenarios

Once you've defined your criteria, the LASSO tool creates an interactive scatterplot of scenarios.

LASSO provides four strategies to help you identify a subset of useful climate projections. Your selections are highlighted to help you visually assess your choices.

3. Download your maps, figures, and spatial data

After you've finalized your selections, you have the option of downloading scatterplots, maps, and spatial data.

Scatterplot of all scenarios

This scatterplot of all climate scenarios – not just your final selections – may serve as a useful reference down the road.

Scatterplot of climate model selections

This figure puts your final climate projection choices into context at a glance.

Maps of climate change

You'll have access to maps of every climate variable from every scenario you selected for your study area.

Spatial data

You can also download raster files for every climate variable from every scenario you selected, refined to your study area. The files are in GeoTIFF format and compatible with any modern GIS or mapping application.

Two .TIFF Files for each scenario