Cephalopodcast - The Ocean Podcast

Okay, I know it’s the second post in a row about this, but I found something interesting last night. Looks like NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory has some unreal estate in Second Life! Got a chance to chat with Eric Hackathorn (aka Hackshaven Harford, pictured at right), who was kind enough to demonstrate some of the features of the NOAA/ESRL area. From their in-game notecard:

The structure before you is called “Science on a Sphere.” You can see the real world version at a museum close to you or by visiting http://sos.noaa.gov/. In the meantime, please enjoy a few sample animations by clicking on the controls on the right. Here are the animations currently available:

• Martian Surface
  A topography of the surface of Mars colored by elevation.
• 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
  The different colors in the ocean represent the average sea surface elevation for the 24 hour period following the 9.0 earthquake that triggered a devistating tsunami in the region.
• Sea Surface Temperatures
  The temperature of the sea surface over time. You can see the formation of an El Nino of the coast of South Africa.

Make sure streaming video is enabled under your preferences and then hit play on the movie control at the bottom of the interface.

Everything is still pretty new, but Eric and I both agreed there are plenty of possibilities for demonstrating science concepts in synthetic environments like SL. I look forward to seeing and hearing more.

• NOAA in SL: Shaka (58, 53, 28)

UPDATE: Here is a PDF that gives some more details about NOAA in SL.

UPDATE: “Come see what NOAA/ESRL has been doing in Second Life and what our plans are for the future. A proof of concept, “Science on a Sphere” (http://sos.noaa.gov/), has been implemented and an overview of our future plans will be presented.” Monday, 05/15/2006 at 12:00pm MST.