Enlarge / Global snapshot of the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (VSI), which measures environmental sensitivity to a changing climate, using satellite data gathered between 2000-2013 at 5km resolution. Areas in green are covered in vegetation that is the least sensitive to changes. Areas in red show the highest sensitivity. Grey areas are barren land or ice covered. Water is blue. (credit: Sedon, et. al.)

Climate change isn’t just one, uniform transformation of the planet. Over time, some areas are going to get hotter, some wetter, some cloudier—and vice versa. This map, produced using a new system for analyzing satellite data, reveals which parts of the planet will be most affected by these changes.

Published in Nature, the map above shows what the researchers call a vegetation sensitivity index (VSI). The VSI is a new measure of environmental vulnerability that combines several sources of data. The first source of data comes from the enhanced vegetation index—a measurement of plant cover on the ground year by year, built with data from a satellite-based, moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer.

The researchers combined this annual plant cover data with information about what would happen to the region if it experienced rapid fluctuations in temperature, moisture, and cloud cover.