earth

a visualization of global weather conditions

forecast by supercomputers

updated every three hours

 

ocean surface current estimates

updated every five days

Community |

 Facebook Page

Author |

 Cameron Beccario @cambecc

Source |

 github.com/cambecc/earth

Modules |

 D3.js, backbone.js, when.js, node.js

Weather Data |

 Global Forecast System
 NCEP / National Weather Service / NOAA

Ocean Currents Data |

 OSCAR
 Earth & Space Research

GRIB/NetCDF Decoder |

 UCAR/Unidata THREDDS

Geographic Data |

 Natural Earth

Hosting |

 CloudFlare, Amazon S3

Font |

 M+ FONTS, Mono Social Icons Font

Waterman Butterfly |

 watermanpolyhedron.com

Earlier Work |

 Tokyo Wind Map

Inspiration |

 HINT.FM wind map

atmospheric pressure corresponds roughly to altitude

several pressure layers are meteorologically interesting

they show data assuming the earth is completely smooth

note: 1 hectopascal (hPa) ≡ 1 millibar (mb)

1000 hPa |

 00,~100 m, near sea level conditions

850 hPa |

 0~1,500 m, planetary boundary, low

700 hPa |

 0~3,500 m, planetary boundary, high

500 hPa |

 0~5,000 m, vorticity

250 hPa |

 ~10,500 m, jet stream

70 hPa |

 ~17,500 m, stratosphere

10 hPa |

 ~26,500 m, even more stratosphere

the "Surface" layer represents conditions at ground or water level

this layer follows the contours of mountains, valleys, etc.

 

overlays show another dimension of data using color

some overlays are valid at a specific height

while others are valid for the entire thickness of the atmosphere

Wind |

 wind speed at specified height

Temp |

 temperature at specified height

TPW (Total Precipitable Water) |

 total amount of water in a column of air
 stretching from ground to space

TCW (Total Cloud Water) |

 total amount of water in clouds
 in a column of air from ground to space

MSLP (Mean Sea Level Pressure) |

 air pressure reduced to sea level

weather and ocean data are generated from numerical models

earth.nullschool.net implies no guarantee of accuracy