FROM BEACH BALL TO EXHIBIT HALL NOAA SCIENCE ON A SPHERE DEBUTS

November 22, 2002 — Most things scientific are worked out on napkins or the backs of envelopes. NOAA’s Science On a Sphere™ owes its start to a beach ball. (Click NOAA image for larger view of NOAA Science On a Sphere™ exhibit.)

“I started thinking about this several years ago and did some experiments on the deck of my house using a beach ball,” said Alexander MacDonald, director of the NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., and the creator of the Sphere. “I knew that putting NOAA climate, weather, oceanic and geophysical on a sphere would be a spectacular tool for explaining NOAA’s science to a variety of audiences.”

The Sphere makes its debut the week of Dec. 2 at the NOAA Science Center in Silver Spring, Md. A series of events, starting with an official opening by retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, have been planned for its Silver Spring stay. (Click NOAA photo for larger view of NOAA Science On a Sphere™ demonstration in October 2002. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

“We think NOAA Science On a Sphere™ will be an invaluable educational tool,” said MacDonald. “It is a unique way to explain complex information using images. It can be used to illustrate geography, weather, climate, space weather and a host of other kinds of data. It’s limited only by our imagination.”

The 68-inch fiberglass sphere is suspended from a custom structure. Four 3,000 lumen projectors and four personal computers synchronize and blend the animated images from global environmental data sets. Images include the Earth’s topography, bathymetry, weather events, weather prediction models, and past and future climate change. For example, viewers can watch how the warm water in the Pacific that signals an El Niño travels across the ocean, or see five centuries of past climate change as it affected the Earth. (Click NOAA image for larger view of NOAA Science On a Sphere™ logo. Click here for high resolution version, which is a very large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

“There’s really no end of possibilities with NOAA Science On a Sphere™,” MacDonald said. “Viewers will see our Sun erupting in spectacular solar storms, sending streams of
particles Earthward. We could develop data sets where viewers can see the climate of the past and present and project it into the future. We have a blank slate at this point, with endless possibilities.” (NOAA image of NOAA Science On a Sphere™ demonstration to students at Heights Middle School in Broomfield, Colo., in October 2002.)

Sphere creators envision its use by museums, science discovery centers, scientific meetings and conferences, educational institutions, and, of course, NOAA events.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Science on a Sphere™

NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory

NOAA Research

Media Contact:
Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 ext. 181