Lights, Camera, Action! NASA's "Eyes" Will Open Your Broadcast Capabilities

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) Manager of Visualization Technology Applications and Development Group, who led the creation of both NASA's "Eyes on the Earth" computer application and the "Earth Now" iPhone app, will present a live and interactive demonstration of how they can be used by broadcast meteorologists to enhance their presentations and increase viewer interest in understanding weather and climate. The "Eyes on the Earth" application allows the broadcast meteorologist to literally control the lighting, the camera, and the animation action to show our planet's vital signs, such as sea level height, concentrations of carbon in our atmosphere, global temperatures, and extent of sea ice in the Arctic, to name a few. Viewers can then be shown how to keep up to date on these important measurements from their mobile devices with the "Earth Now" app for both iOS and Android. 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 presenter will demonstrate how the AMS broadcaster can use these applications to enhance their presentation capabilities.

Developed in 2012 using state-of-the-art video game-engine technology, "Eyes on the Earth" has been enhanced to better deliver interactive reality visualizations of "fresh" data and images from NASA's fleet of Earth satellites to home computers. It is directly linked into NASA's "Earth Right Now" media campaign to keep the public informed about what NASA has dubbed "The Year of the Earth." For the first time in more than a decade, five NASA Earth science missions will be launched into space in the same year, providing new insights into our planet. "Eyes" will inform you about these missions so you can keep your views up to date on the latest developments. As these NASA satellite missions constantly monitor our planet's vital signs, "Eyes" will allow the viewer to virtually ride along with a satellite observing the Earth as it sweeps below, and view authentic data maps of ozone, carbon dioxide distribution, and global temperature mapped onto the surface of the globe. A touchscreen version has been developed for broadcast studio use as well as for museums and science centers.

The iOS and Android app "Earth Now" brings a world of ever-changing weather and climate data to your mobile devices. 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 and Google Play.

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