Beautiful visualization of wind currents on Earth | Hacker News Reader

Beautiful visualization of wind currents on Earth

earth.nullschool.net

115 pointsebahnx34 comments

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Don't forget to click on the bottom-left button and check the different options.

Example of a high altitude with temperature:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/10hPa/ove...

And many different projections, Stereographic is awesome:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/over...

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/o...

Please someone make this as an app for a desktop background!

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I found this option for total cloud water[0] and the checked the weather in France[1]. Pretty useful.

[0]:http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/o...

[1]:http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/France.htm

Desktop background would be amazing.

Beautiful. Reminds me of how I used to run xplanet as live desktop with bump and cloud maps (updated every few hours), accurate stellar background, etc. I wonder if there's something similar, more modern, with more possible data feeds.

Previous Discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6924854

This looks great. I just wish it didn't have to completely refresh when you turn the earth. Maybe in V2 :)

Hi. I'm the creator of the site. Unfortunately, each time the globe orientation changes, the distortion caused by the projection needs to be recalculated. Tried to think of ways to make this faster or save computations, but haven't found any good solutions yet.

From a usability aspect at least, you could keep the same distortion until the interaction ends, and then tween the distortion values to the new orientation over a second or two. Technically it'd be 'wrong' for a short time, but it'd be nicer to use.

Awesome work regardless though.

Any demoscene people in the thread?

Excellent stuff.

Not sure if it is feasible but a slider control for height would show the transition from high altitude (circulation currents) through to surface conditions really nicely. Hard to cache the animation I imagine.

Does the data update after a while, or do I have to refresh the page manually?

Amazing. I've been tracking a delivery (Seiki 4k monitor incidentally) which I believe is currently on this flight: http://www.flightradar24.com/ABX2040

It always looks as though the course they take is unnecessarily far north. I have to consciously remind myself that the map projection and the prevailing winds play a factor. This really does beautifully illustrate why they take the route they do.

The map projection on google maps is only chosen to produce good maps at every point by themselves (square city blocks will still be square, wherever you zoom in). I assume they would have chosen a different design (a globe) if they designed it to be used as a world map service.

No, it's chosen because it preserves direction. They use a single Mercator projection centered at the equator.

It's a pragmatic choice, but it's certainly not chosen to produce good local maps. It produces bad local maps everywhere except the equator.

If they wanted to produce "good maps at every point by themselves", they'd use a different projection every time you recenter the map.

It's a terrible projection at every point not on the equator. However, it does preserve direction, so straight N-S or E-W streets will appear perfectly straight.

However, square city blocks _do not_ appear square. You just don't notice the distortion unless you're quite far north or south.

This is not far north because of winds, it's just the shortest line!

Great circle distance (Curves in Mercator, straight lines on globe) vs. Rhumb lines (Straight in Mercator, constant course angle against meridians)

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ComparingLoxodromesAndGrea...

[edit] added picture for explanation

http://i.imgur.com/wJS0ry1.png

Lines of same color have identical course

Sort of, journeys in the other direction are pushed even further north (or, actually north of the straight line) though which I believe is because of the winds. - i.e. it's a factor, isn't it?

Jet Streams are a factor but their position varies.

The appearance as a northbound curve is the effect of the straight Orthodrome/Great Circle line projected into Mercator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight#Transatlan...

[edit] I think it's fair to assume the winds are relatively stable and more intense further north so eastbound (US > Europe) flights might deviate even further to the north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Tracks#Route_Pla...

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/10hPa/ove...

Some days ago I posted this: http://scalgo.com/live/global

It's modelling all the water flow levels in the world using very detailed GPS data. I mean, you can model a sea raise or a river level raise.

I didn't even get 1 point. OK, design isn't as cool as this wind one, but I think it deserved a bit more love since they process a crap ton of terrain data for the water flow modelling...

It's hard to give credit for something indiscernible.

This is a very similar style to parts of this incredible visualisation of Earth weather http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COWE6sMzdqI

Well done! Interestingly there is a tornado like structure in the Crimean area.

other than that this beautiful web-app gets constantly updated with new data like

Relative Humidity [%], Air Density [kg/m3], and Wind Power Density [kW/m2]

https://twitter.com/cambecc/status/438674275285757952

here is the obligatory link to the old discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6924854

This REALLY blew my mind. The the "Earth" menu at the bottom left - you can see sea currents, temperature map, winds at different heights... terrific.

GitHub sources: https://github.com/cambecc/earth

Noticed this tool on suspicious0bservers youtube channel a while back. He uses several tools daily to monitor earth and solar weather:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Suspicious0bservers

This is amazing! What is being used for geocoding IP addresses? It's one of the more accurate returns I have come across in quite some time.

Also, how live is this data? If the data is live enough, this could be immensely useful for small-craft off-shore fishing.

All around, superb work!

This is awesome. Is there a better way to zoom out than to click on "Earth" and choose another projection to reset the zoom level?

Edit: Wasn't working before, Chrome restart fixed it. My bad.

on my mac the scroll gesture works for zoom in and out.

Try mouse scroll.

This is lovely, but I believe it's a copy of an earlier visualization by Viégas and Wattenberg: http://hint.fm/wind

Do ocean currents follow these same lines?

Take the Antarctic Circumpolar Current or the Gulf Stream: looks like the wind defines ocean currents.

Aesthetics aside, how accurate is this?

wait. is this live? anything similar for clouds?

what the hell? why was this post deleted?

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