PORTFOLIO
FEATURE
Sun-Earth Viewer
Above: screenshot of the Sun-Earth Viewer. Click the above image to explore this application (Flash is required)
Go to the viewer now (Flash is required)
The Sun-Earth Media Viewer is a Flash-based interactive tool kit designed to allow users to explore and compare a variety of solar and terrestrial images from ground-based observatories and NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection missions. An innovative tool encourages users to zoom and pan the images while making continual comparisons to a scale model of the Earth!
As expected, the dynamic images continually raise a multitude of questions from the public such as, “How big is the Sun? What are Sunspots? Where can I see an aurora?” To answer the most common questions, our team enhanced the viewer by adding a series of interviews from NASA scientists and cultural representatives as well as a series of high resolution graphics and animations.
Public response has been overwhelming. People are continually amazed at how easy it is to access cutting edge science through a simple internet connection. With the viewer, people are often seeing our closest star, the Sun, up close for the first time in their lives.
In May of 2004, it was honored with a 15,000 Euro Pirelli International Award for best “Environmental Multimedia Project.”
Challenges
The viewer is largely dependent on near real-time images from satellites and observatories. It soon became apparent that strong lines of communications with the missions and observatories represented in the viewer be maintained on a continual basis.
