Earth is an interactive map visualization that shows the latest wind activity everywhere on the planet. The map, which was created Tokyo-based software engineer Cameron Beccario using the popular data visualization library D3, pulls data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Prediction and updates every three hours. Users can rotate the map and zoom in, as well as choose from a range of altitudes and map projections. Colors represent wind speeds, giving users an intuitive look at the dead zones, such as the Western United States, and hotspots, such as the North Pacific Ocean, of global wind.
Earth was inspired by a 2012 map of wind in America created by researchers in Google’s “Big Picture” research group, which creates interactive visualizations.
