Science On a Sphere Network Conference
submitted by Patrick Rowley
The 2011 Science On a Sphere (SOS) Network conference was held 3-5 May 2011 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL. With almost 70 SOS installations around the world (and even more institutions with other spherical display devices, like our 3D Globe), the network is growing rapidly. At the last SOS conference in November 2009, there were only 35 SOS installations. Margaret Mooney and Patrick Rowley represented CIMSS at the conference and along with Dan Pisut (NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab), helped solicit feedback about our nascent EarthNow project, a NOAA ELG-funded project aimed at assisting museum docents with interpretation of real-time weather and climate data on spherical displays.
Patrick Rowley also gave a joint presentation with Peter Leighton (Nauticus Maritime Science Museum, Norfolk, VA) about the use of real-time data on Science On Spheres. Peter provided information about the Earth Watch program at Nauticus, which Patrick helped to create during his time there. Patrick followed that up with a preview of the EarthNow blog/website and how the project will help enhance docents' understanding of real-time data, leading to higher quality SOS presentations.
Rowley was joined by Margaret Mooney from CIMSS and Dan Pisut from NOAA in a break-out session collecting user feedback to advise the project moving forward.
If you have global data you think will help convey weather-climate relationship stories, please contact Patrick. The project is in its early stages and any feedback is welcome!
