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Wind Map of US Will Blow You Away
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Talk about visualizations. Ever wondered what the wind would look like if you could see it in action from above? A new project posted online by a pair of Google computer scientists, called simply Wind Map, has to be seen to be believed. "It can be quite hypnotizing to watch the gusty trails blast across the American continent, skitter over the Sierras, get roughed up by the Rockies, and whoosh over the great plains on its way to Canada," writes Chris Taylor. Wind Map is the brainchild of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, the co-leaders of Google's 'Big Picture' visualization research group in Cambridge, Mass. Wind patterns are constantly changing, of course, which is why the Wind Map designers have also given us a moving-image gallery of previous blustery days."
Big suction holes west of Dallas and Philadelphia.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Canada sucks. Heh. I always wondered what that little nub of Minnesota sticking into Canada was caused by.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I always knew California blew.
Conservative, mod down for violating
I'd love to see a Wind overlay on Google Maps all over the world. Would be great for sailing. That's why we need open data.
This is incredible technology. Wouldn't you love to have some checkboxes to turn on/off: state borders, topography, jet stream, hi/lo pressure systems, time display...
Very cool. If someone mashes it up with a topo map it'll be awesome.
Personally, I am looking forward to checking out this map during hurricane season. This map is the number one thing I am going back to when a hurricane strikes land here in the US.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
What are they eating in San Jose to produce all that wind?! Seriously. Something is seriously wrong. Seek medical attention.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Yeah, stupid. It just averages out to a predictable level over the whole grid, effects minimal pollution and, well, just works. Greetings from Europe - with apologies to all decent people in the US, we kinda find it amusing to see you sliding back into your personal version of the dark ages.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Then click the second link which goes right to the map. -_-
As a retired weather guy with over 25 years working with and training weathermen, this is one of the best tools I've seen. Applause!
Understanding fluid flow and visualizing it is not easy, but it crucial to meteorology because that dynamic drives and reveals the mechanisms that create the weather systems we track, such as fronts, storms, and so on. Given the tools seen are usually something like this (from ADDS) or this (from CoolWx), the WindMap does a much more intuitive job of showing the strength and patterns in merging flow.
So, well done! The only improvement I can think of for better use operationally would be an hourly looper of, say, the past six hours with a 3-4 second pause for each hour. This would let you track specific features as the day goes on.
Pacifist paratroopers yell, "Ghandi!" when they jump.
Oh... I thought the East-coast was a visualization of tax-dollars.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Ahem... Firefox 11.0 here and it works like a charm, thankyouverymuch.
return $sig;
If you think that's interesting, check out their other project http://hint.fm/projects/touch/ (description) and http://www.fleshmap.com/touch/index.html (direct link) on their site as well. Please note both links are NSFW.
Slashdotters are like lab mice that always seek out cocaine, but instead of cocaine, they're focused on little fluffy clouds.
I was thinking I'd love to see it as a layer in Google Earth, being able to see the wind flowing over and around the topography would be very interesting. I see a few null areas with little wind showing so I plan to check them out in GE to see if some local hills or mountains that I don't remember are creating them.
This seems to visualize surface winds. Radar (precipitation aloft) is moved by winds higher in the atmosphere. There's often a disconnect in the direction of surface and elevated winds. Check out a Skew-T Sounding and you can see the larger vertical wind profile.
Firefox 12b3 here, no problems.
Ah, another "superior" European. Meanwhile, in the real world, the US ranks #1 in wind power generation, #1 in biomass generation, and #2 in solar generation in the world.
Per what?
Looks cool but what altitude is this? Do they have a map for different altitudes? What layer has the jet stream?
Excuse my neighbor, he's been brainwashed into thinking dedication and loyalty to the U.S. is a really really good thing. Logic eludes him.
I assume that the winds are "surface" winds. It would be interesting to see the wind field at higher altitudes, too. AFAIK a surface low pressure area will have winds blowing into it and above it will be a high altitude high pressure with winds blowing out of it. At least that's how it's been explained to me.
Nate
Ah, another "superior" European. Meanwhile, in the real world, the US ranks #1 in wind power generation, #1 in biomass generation, and #2 in solar generation in the world.
Per what?
Per Library of Congress, what else?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Wait, you're saying that a Google-made page works best in a Google-made browser?
Will the days of IE-only web pages return, only with IE replaced by Chrome?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
The joke in the title blows.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Actually, even your useless metric of comparing a country the size of the US to much smaller European states is wrong. Germany beats the pants off of the US in solar generation as does Italy, wind power per square mile or per capita is pityful compared to the rest of the world, and biomass statistics include wood burning, which can be a very bad idea.
Conservatives: where facts are created from the gut.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
If you haven't seen it already, you might be interested in this:
Interactive Starry Night
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
At the moment it's showing an easterly wind over Boston, not a westerly. You do know that wind directions are named for the direction the wind is coming from, not the direction it's going to, don't you?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
I am looking at my anemometer. It is 30 feet off the ground - that's surface wind.
Sure would like to know why my comment was modded to zero. Windmap fanbois?
Are you here looking at my instruments? No. You aren't.
The map is wrong.
You posted as anonymous coward, which always starts out with a moderation of 0. No, we're not looking at your instruments. Are you looking at the same windmap?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Looking at a weather page for Boston it agrees with the windmap. Are you sure you know which way a westerly wind blows?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
This is what it looks like when you don't trim your beard.
Table-ized A.I.
Forget sailing. It looks like it could be a great tool for figuring out movement of allergens such as pollen through the air, for studying allergy outbreaks.
AccountKiller
What I want is to get a law passed that you can put your solar panels up anywhere in state and get paid back in terms of tax credits and local rates as if they were on your house. The idea of putting panels up west of the Cascades seems insane to me. There are transmission lines that pass through the SE of Oregon, the highest solar index and now I see the highest wind speed.
But it is all bullshit compared to the jet stream. Check out http://www.skywindpower.com/ww/index.htm The only problem with it is that it totally fucking awesome so no one will use it.
At 30 feet off the ground, your anemometer is measuring a very localized wind direction, which, depending upon terrain, vegetation, etc., can be very different from your neighbor's wind direction 100 yards away. I have stood in my yard during wind storms and watched the trees on either side of my house blowing in different directions, due to wind being funneled in ravines near my house.
They didn't say in the wind map page (of if they did, I didn't see it), but I suspect they are taking an average wind speed and direction from a number of points. YMMV.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
I caught this the other night after taking my Ambien. Ohhh...
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
This is Europe where countries like Germany are shutting down your carbon free nuclear and letting your less fluent neighbors burn coal on your behalf? Hypocrites.
Greetings from Europe - with apologies to all decent people in the US, we kinda find it amusing to see you sliding back into your personal version of the dark ages.
You mean, like in Germany where they are saying goodbye to nuclear and cutting solar power subsidies?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Yeah, cutting solar subsidies, because it is becoming self-sustaining by now and cutting nuclear because it was never sustainable without unloading a shitload of externalities on everyone. We did not like that, and, unlike some other western nations, we have a functioning democracy.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
As someone who lives in the US near some of the HUGE wind farms that have been installed over the past 10 years, i have to point out that the reason we don't use more wind is because we are STILL not ready for it. These massive wind farms are situated in ideal locations, and yet, they sit there, standing still. Why? because the grid is just not capable of handling the load that these huge farms produce. We can make loads of electricity, we just have not built up the infrastructure to get that electricity to where we need it. And of course, part of that is because 'wah wah wah big oil subsidy takes the money' and whatnot, and part of it is because these things take time when the distances you have to cover are larger than most European countries.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
I'd also like to see the animation speed scaled or scalable to match the map scale/zoom level.
It sure looks cool, but the animation speed is misleading relative to the actual wind speed.
Yes, I am aware of that problem. I was a bit snarky up there, I do wonder, though, why no one can get his shit together to invest in infrastructure anymore.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
So now instead of nuclear, Germany's switched to coal and buying electricity from France, and you've got a promise to switch to renewable long after the politicians who made that promise will be out of office. Sounds like a real functioning democracy to me.
Keep throwing those insults, though.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Because, dear AC, bandwidth is measured at the house, not in total capacity. Therefore, the bandwidth per square mile is a completely useless statistic. And even then, the US fails.
At least compare the US to the EU, which has a comparable size and population. But since that doesn't work in your favor, you ignore it. You do realize that reality doesn't care about your mental gymnastics, right?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
i suppose because despite its national scope, literally hundreds of companies all have to get their shit together, at approximately the same time, all with enough budget to upgrade/replace *their* portion of the grid. And we all know how good humans are at working together when money is involved.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
In every broadband article, "superior Europeans" (and non-brainwashed Americans) suggest taking a particular metropolitan area of US that is similar in size and population density to some European country - say, Los Angeles or New York - and comparing that. And such comparisons always result in US still lagging behind.
Because Oklahoma sucks and Nebraska blows. NyuckNyuckNyuckNyuckNyuck
what more needs to be said?
A North American city is NOT a European nation.
Comparing these two disparate things is, in itself, an exercise in foregone conclusion and outright deception.
But it it makes you feel superior, who am I to argue with your lack of reasoning ability and your thinly veiled faux pan-nationalism.
For Europeans that like to *feel* superior.