Via
BoingBoing is a post about NOAA
staking out some territory in Second Life, the "online society within a 3D
world, where users can explore, build, socialize, and participate in their own
economy." According to Second Life Insider:
NOAA Comes to Second Life. From the article:
The NOAA's sim is called Meteroa, which is derived from the Greek
adjective meteoras which means 'suspended in the air' (Full disclosure, I'm
Greek). On this lovely island sim you can find fully interactive educational
demonstrations about the ocean and weather. Examples include a sea life
submarine ride created by The Magicians, and two different tsnuami demos by
Aimee Weber Studios and Electric Sheep Company. Other fun stuff includes a
demonstration of a real-time temperature map powered by Yahoo, narration by
Exploratorium Chief Scientist Paul Doherty, an airplane ride into a
hurricane, and a melting glacier demonstration.
The NOAA's arrival may be a great sign of things to come. United States
government agencies aren't exactly what you call flamboyant, trendy, or
fashionable. Their interest in Second Life as a solid educational tool may
give other companies a greater sense of comfort in the stability of the
platform. We can only hope!
Susan Miller (02:14 PM)
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The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the
Earth System
Research Laboratory (ESRL) have arrived in Second Life, and they brought
all the fun and excitement you have naturally come to expect from fluid
dynamics! In case you haven't been on any submarine rides lately, the NOAA is
the governmental agency tasked with researching the oceans, climate, weather,
and anything else having to do with gigantic masses of air and water. (Full
disclosure, I was part of this project.)
The NOAA's sim is called
Meteroa, which is derived from the Greek adjective meteoras which means
'suspended in the air' (Full disclosure, I'm Greek). On this lovely island sim
you can find fully interactive educational demonstrations about the ocean and
weather. Examples include a sea life submarine ride created by The Magicians,
and two different tsnuami demos by Aimee Weber Studios and Electric Sheep
Company. Other fun stuff includes a demonstration of a real-time temperature
map powered by Yahoo, narration by Exploratorium Chief Scientist Paul Doherty,
an airplane ride into a hurricane, and a melting glacier demonstration.
The NOAA's arrival may be a great sign of things to come. United States
government agencies aren't exactly what you call flamboyant, trendy, or
fashionable. Their interest in Second Life as a solid educational tool may
give other companies a greater sense of comfort in the stability of the
platform. We can only hope!
If you can't make it out to the actual exhibit, then you may want to check out
Aimee's tsunami demo in movie form created by SL resident and friend Isruel
Asturias
here. And for
chuckles, a parody version
here.
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The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) with
Aimee Weber
Studio just unrolled a sneak preview of their educational project in
Second Life (due to open in mid November). This appetizer of things to come
features the three dimensional visualization of live national weather (now on
display at the
Science Center).
The system works by way of dozens of scripted reporting stations dotted all
over a map of the United States. These stations retrieve
METAR data from NOAA every
eight minutes which they then decode and render into models of the appropriate
weather phenomenon for the area. All sorts of cloud cover and precipitation
models are available as well as special weather conditions such as
thunderstorms and tornadoes. Temperature is represented by warmer and cooler
shades of color. This 3D composite is great for giving visitors a visceral
feel for the weather around them.
Anecdotally, while I was working on the partially completed map, I watched a
storm system slowly crawl up the east coast over the course of a day. At one
point in the evening it began to rain on the map in the New York City area
(that's where I live). Just as I was about to take a closer look, rain started
pelting my window!
Now, given the 8 minute interval between updates along with the variation in
weather for any given reporting zone, this kind of predictive resolution isn't
always going to happen. But what a great start for a project that demonstrates
Second Life as a powerful visualization tool for real-time data.
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