Potential Applications of NASA/JPL's Dynamic and Engaging Weather and Climate Visualizations to your Daily Weather Broadcast

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) Manager of Visualization Technology Applications and Development Group, who created the visualizations and NASA Goddard's Climate Science Communicator and former TV weathercaster will present a live and interactive demonstration of how both NASA's "Eyes on The Earth 2.0" web application and its "Earth Now" iPhone application can be used by broadcast meteorologists to enhance their presentations and increase viewer interest in understanding weather and climate. Public response to these applications has been exceptionally positive. Television viewers will find the visuals entertaining and weathercasters will enjoy using the simple-to-use NASA interactives.  The presenters will also take suggestions from the AMS broadcaster audience as to how these applications might be modified to enhance their use for the community.

Developed using a state-of-the-art, browser-based video game-engine technology, "Eyes on the Earth 2.0" is an interactive reality visualization that delivers "fresh" data and images from NASA's fleet of Earth satellites to home computers. It also displays the location of all of NASA's 15 currently operating Earth-observing satellite missions in real time. These NASA satellite missions constantly monitor our planet's vital signs, such as sea level height, concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, global temperatures and extent of sea ice in the Arctic, to name a few. Visitors to "Eyes on the Earth 2.0" can also: -Ride along with a satellite, observing Earth as it sweeps below in accelerated time; View authentic data maps of ozone, carbon dioxide distribution and global temperature mapped onto the surface of the globe. Home users can even view these dynamic images in stereographic 3-D (anaglyph 3-D glass needed). A touchscreen version is also being made available for Museums and Science Centers. Feedback on interest in touchscreens for your TV news studio will be welcomed.

Developed as an iPhone app "Earth Now" brings a world of ever-changing weather and climate data to your fingertips. The regularly updated data are displayed as color maps projected over a 3D Earth model that can be rotated by a single finger stroke, or zoomed in and out by the pinch or spread of two fingers. Color-coded legends indicate the relative strength or weakness of environmental conditions. Helpful descriptions provide background information on each data set. "Earth Now" is currently available at the iTunes app store.

Reference: http://climate.nasa.gov/eyes