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Keeling Curve 2D — Atmospheric CO₂ Breathing (Sawtooth Model)

Interactive 2D companion to the Keeling Curve globe: the same trend + seasonal sawtooth equations drawn as a live scrolling chart, with a seasonal-amplitude slider so you can see how much of the NH growing-season swing comes from land vegetation extent while the six-decade anthropogenic climb keeps rising underneath it.

Climate, Ecology & Environment2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-keeling-curve-atmospheric-co2-breathing ↗ Open standalone

This 2D companion to the Keeling Curve globe keeps the same underlying model — a slow, quadratic long-term trend from 315 ppm in 1958 toward and past 420 ppm today, with a seasonal cosine riding on top of it — but reads it the way climate scientists actually publish the Mauna Loa record: as a scrolling ppm-versus-year chart rather than a rotating shell. A seasonal-amplitude slider lets you set how large the Northern Hemisphere's growing/dormant swing is, from a flatter, more ocean-dominated hemisphere near 1 ppm up to a heavily-vegetated 6 ppm, while a small breath dial and a live "trend rate of rise" readout (the derivative of the long-term curve) show how both the yearly wiggle and the underlying acceleration have changed since 1958.

⚙ Under the hood

Same trend(t) = 315 + 0.85t + 0.0126t² and seasonal(t) = A·cos(2π(frac(t) − 0.29)) equations as the 3D globe, plotted directly as a scrolling sawtooth chart instead of a shaded shell, with seasonal amplitude A exposed as an adjustable control and the trend's derivative shown live as "ppm/yr".

Keeling CurveCO2climate sciencecarbon cycleseasonal cycle2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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