If you don’t have a smartphone and don’t give a toss about apps for such devices, then stop reading now.
Still with me? Ah good, thanks for staying. OK, here is the news, NASA have a really cool new app, and this is the important bit, its “FREE”. What is the deal here? Well, it provides dramatic visualizations of near-real-time global climate data from NASA’s Earth science satellites. … hence it triggered my “Oh thats cool” meter.
Sanity Warning: Right now, it is just for the iPhone, but don’t let that motivate you to rush out into the streets donning sackcloth and ashes, and screaming in anguish, I can reassure you that plans are in place for the development of an Android version.
Its called Earth Now and is both an iPhone and also an iPad app (of course). The JPL NASA apps page (go check it out and see some of the other truly interesting apps they have) describes it like this …
View stunning visualizations of climate change data from NASA’s Earth satellites on a 3-D model of Earth that can be rotated and manipulated for an all-encompassing view of our world’s vital stats. Choose from extensive visual datamaps including sea level, ozone, carbon dioxide and watervapor to monitor and study climate patterns across the planet.
Earth Now is closely integrated with NASA’s Webby Award-winning Global Climate Change website, http://climate.nasa.gov, which is devoted to educating the public about Earth’s changing climate, providing easy-to-understand information about the causes and effects of climate change and how NASA studies it.
The app was developed by the Earth Science Communications, Visualization Technology Applications and Development Teams at JPL, with support from NASA Headquarters.
So if you have an iPhone, go check it out.