01 April 2012

(Near) Real Time US Continental Wind Map

The effect of watching the wind swirling over the entire continental US in near-real time can be hypnotic. I can't wait until a global version is available.
Surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. These are near-term forecasts, revised once per hour. So what you're seeing is a living portrait. (See the NDFD site for precise details; our timestamp shows time of download.) And for those of you chasing top wind speed, note that maximum speed may occur over lakes or just offshore. _Wind Map
Wind Map

The above image is a static screen capture from the website. The actual on-site image is dynamic, and zoomable for up-close looks at particular regions.

This is reminiscent of the "mirror world" concept of digitally augmented reality portrayals which can be mapped on top of the real world in real time. The amount of information expected to become available to ordinary people using such means is expected to be astoundingly large.

More: Second Earth: World Wide Sim (PDF)

If we learn to use this new wealth of knowledge to our benefit, we can be immensely richer for it.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Larry Sheldon said...

Interesting to note where all the windmills are.

Sunday, 01 April, 2012  

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