3D Weather Data Visualization in Second Life

Posted Oct 28th 2006 8:39PM by Aimee Weber
Filed under: Educational, News

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.

Tags: Aimee Weber Studio, AimeeWeberStudio, NOAA

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. Looks amazing! Plan to sell this? (Please say yes!)

Posted at 10:03PM on Oct 28th 2006 by Nimrod Yaffle

2. Aimee, you're a genius!

Posted at 10:10PM on Oct 28th 2006 by Gwyneth Llewelyn

3. Wow, that looks fantastic! It's great to see NOAA continuing development of my company's weather map after the contest. Nice work, Aimee. :)

Posted at 12:21AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Kimberly Rufer-Bach

4. This looks cool, great to see this oft-promised "visualization of data" really happening in SL.

Does Aimee do scripting, too? or just clothign design and building?

Posted at 1:44AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Prokofy Neva

5. Thanks Prokofy!

While my first SL love is fashion and design, I actually have a minor in Computer Science from Columbia University. I often tinker with simple scripting jobs, such as my antique automobile, but when necessary I am rather proficient at LSL.

This particular project was coded from scratch by me and AW team member, Isruel Asturias while Hackshaven Harford did the server side scripting to feed us the METAR data directly from NOAA weather sources.

Posted at 1:49AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Aimee Weber

6. Goldurn these young whippersnappers and their custom NOAA backends! Why, back in my day, we got up before dawn to spend hours reading Terms of Service for weather sites by the light of a kerosense lantern. Then we pulled our temperature data from Yahoo Weather's RSS feed using a chain winch, and humped it by muleback up the Cliffs of Meteroa to an animated numerical display on a good old-fashioned weather map. And that was before we chopped the cow, milked the wood, and walked to school ten miles through the snow, uphill both ways!

*shakes cane menacingly, then totters off to script a drool cup and an ear horn*

Posted at 9:25AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Kimberly Rufer-Bach

7. Nice map! Can I scale it up so that I can walk around under the tiny clouds?

Posted at 12:17PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Trevor F. Smith

8. Uhm, this most be the most lousie weather information I have observed... It has no detail whatsoever and the 3D representation does not add any usefull information to the presentation whatsoever.

Redo and do it right!

Posted at 9:42AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Lord Metroid

9. I dunno, I think the clouds are pretty cool. And I don't figure it's likely yet at this stage of Second Life's devleopment that anyone's going to be logging in to SL for a weather forecast for everyday use instead of just looking at a 2D Web site or the TV. Not yet. This map has other purposes:

* It's a public relations tool for NOAA. It gets press and makes them visible and approachable.
* It does have educational value. It might get someone interested in meteorology so that they decide to go learn more about things like different sorts of cloud cover. I bet the finished build will include more information or links to info on NOAA's Web site.
* Most important, though, I view NOAA's project as a _research_ project. NOAA (and many other RL organizations with projects in SL now) are pioneering new technology that WILL be more functional than, say, a weather map on a 2D Web site. This map of Aimee's, like the earlier map I built for NOAA, is not where we're headed; it is a necessary step on the way there.

You wouldn't have used the Wright Brothers' first plane for the purposes of practical travel. ;)

Posted at 10:35AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Kimberly Rufer-Bach

10. >This particular project was coded from scratch by me and AW team member, Isruel Asturias while Hackshaven Harford did the server side scripting to feed us the METAR data directly from NOAA weather sources.

Glad my query got some credit for these folks, otherwise Gwyn might think all the genius is yours alone : )

Posted at 11:10AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Prokofy Neva

11. What I'd like to see is a 3-d weather map for Second Life itself which showed traffic (avatar pile-ups), sims down, and the actual "weather" of SL which is a combination of its actual manufactured wind, and its "weather" of grey squares, lag, etc.

Posted at 11:09AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Prokofy Neva

12. One word... Teh Hotness.

Posted at 11:36AM on Oct 29th 2006 by Satchmo Prototype

13. It's a nice visualization but I have to wonder what people are missing in their real lives that they have to escape into a pretend one all the time.

Posted at 1:24PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Tim

14. I like it: a neat application of Second Life's mechanisms for interacting with "external" data.

I also like the idea of a larger scale version where you could walk around under the clouds and simulated rain: maybe something about the size of half a sim. It's probably a totally impractical idea, but an intriguing one none-the-less.

To echo Prok's sentiment above: I do like it when team leads like Aimee step up and share the limelight with their teams. Good job asking the question, Prok, and good job responding, Aimee!

This gives me another reason to head back to the NOAA site and check out what's been going on recently!

Posted at 3:54PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Tomas_Hausdorff

15. The article actually says that the project is by NOAA and Aimee Weber Studio, and so right off the bat Aimee wasn't taking full credit. And yet, Gwyn may be right, if the project is Aimee's brainchild. Aimee has only said that the scripting was a team effort, including her own contribution, which doesn't negate Gwyn's genius comment. Upon reading this, you may begin to think that Orlie needs to get a life, and I would be inclined to agree.

Posted at 4:07PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Orlie Omegamu

16. Slashdot picked this story up: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/10/29/1235244.shtml

Posted at 6:49PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Orlie Omegamu

17. Wow, Aimee, this is great!

Posted at 8:37PM on Oct 29th 2006 by Alex at LEWIS

18. Fantastic work Aimee. Keep it up!

Posted at 12:17AM on Oct 30th 2006 by IAmEric

19. TVNZ in New Zealand has had this for years... They do a combination of 3-D flyby over the country and each major city showing different cloud formations, precipitation and wind effects on clouds and rain.

Check out mms://media.tvnz.co.nz/news/2006/flyby1_128k.wmv

Posted at 4:03AM on Oct 30th 2006 by Paul

20. Aimee - I can't wait to see the new exhibit in action.
Your cloud extensions reminded me of the day that BBC switched from using stick-on magnetic clouds to backprojected computer graphics. This happened in the 80's using a Macintosh computer attached to a high end graphics workstation - I was the Apple evangelist who demonstrated how it would work in a real weather forecast. I even drew the clouds myself. I wonder how long it will be before weather forecasters start to broadcast from Second Life?

The slashdot effect seems to have drawn traffic to the SL Science Center and some of that overflowed to my Nanoflow exhibit: http://knowledgecast.wordpress.com/2006/10/14/nanoscale
I think this also triggered extra traffic to NPL's Video Podcast Lectures: http://feeds.feedburner.com/npl-lectures as we acquired another 20 subscribers overnight!

Posted at 9:26AM on Oct 31st 2006 by Dave Taylor (SL Davee Commerce

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