WATCHING THE WIND

'Wind Map' Brings U.S. Wind Patterns To Life (VIDEO)
Craig Kanally, March 30, 2012 (Huffington Post)

"A pair of Google employees have teamed up to provide a powerful animation of wind patterns in the United States in near real-time.

"Wind appears like rivers or streams flowing across the country…On the website, you can zoom in and out on the map, and you can look at previous days' wind patterns in a gallery."



"The project was created by Google's Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg…[They are] currently looking for international data sources for a global version…Viégas and Wattenberg are research scientists and co-leaders of Google's "Big Picture" data visualization group in Cambridge, Mass.

"One goal of the wind map, which updates every hour, seems to be raising awareness and support for wind energy. The website hosting the map notes: 'An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future.'