For those who have enjoyed the mesmerizing floating particles traces of NASA’s Perpetual Ocean piece, there is now an equivalent in terms of experiencing the strength and directions of wind flows.
Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Vigas, now working for the Google Big Picture Group and the main authors behind the Google+ Ripples graphs, still seem to collaborate on new and beautiful expressions of data. The latest result of their collaboration consists of a zoomable, yet smoothly animated, map of the US revealing the tracery of wind flowing over the US in almost-real-time.
The data is based on 1-hour forecasts, which are downloaded once per hour, making the maps quite close to real-time. The speed and density of the particle paths convey the actual wind speed, varying between 1 and 30mph.
Via @viegasf and @wattenberg.
Article source: http://feeds.infosthetics.com/~r/infosthetics/~3/AHmcsu67DU8/wind_map_revealing_the_traces_of_wind_flowing_over_the_us_in_real-time.html. Creative Commons (CC)