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back to article Hypnotic wind map captures Earth's heavenly currents

Those readers slumped behind their desks in the traditional pre-Xmas torpor and who are looking for an alternative to watching the clock hands crawling towards Yule liberation are directed towards "earth" - magnificent animated views of the world's wind currents. Global wind currents shown on earth Using data from the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You're right, it is addictive.

    9 0
    1. Callam McMillan
      Reply Icon

      Addictive

      Well not for those of us at work who are stuck on IE8... It doesn't work :(

      1 0
    2. James Micallef Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Not only addictive, but remarkably trippy too

      5 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Can't chat...

        ...I'm too busy watching green penguins racing around a blue london bus...

        1 0
  2. Forget It
    Joke

    pun warning

    I usually get the wind after Xmas

    - not before

    4 0
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder if we can use enough bandwidth to cause a system out tomorrow using this

    2 0
  4. vulcan
    Thumb Up

    That is brilliant. As a new GA pilot the animations bring to life those synoptic charts we study when deciding if we can fly or not.

    And yes it is addictive

    1 0
    1. bigtimehustler
      Reply Icon

      Haha, indeed true, i just wouldn't rely on someone elses programming skills you don't know too much about to solely make those decisions! You might have to check the boring old charts too.

      0 0
  5. Bronek Kozicki

    now I see!

    ... why travel from US to UK so so much faster than the other way.

    0 0
    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: now I see!

      I thought it was just that everyone was happy to be getting away from the US without being declared a terrorist, such that they put on a little extra burst of speed. Well you learn something new everyday...

      2 0
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Cyclones

    There are two spectacular cyclones in the Indian ocean right now.

    Edit: That's the first time I've been able to "see" down the eye of a cyclone. Astounding stuff.

    4 0
  7. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    an El Reg ddos?

    I think cloudflare needs some better programmers. Because the ones that wrote their current ddos implementation sucked.

    I guess nullschool.net hasn't been /. before.

    1 0
  8. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    I don't bookmark much these days, but...

    ..gotcha!

    3 0
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Please post this sort thing on Friday afternoons

    as I'm now finding it unusually hard to fake productivity

    2 0
    1. Martin Budden
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: Please post this sort thing on Friday afternoons

      But it is Friday afternoon! Well it is now, here.

      0 0
  10. Hero Protagonist

    Animated Van Gogh paintings

    I like the view from the South Pole

    3 0
  11. Hero Protagonist

    Inspired by this perhaps?

    I new I'd seen something like this a few years ago, just found the bookmark. Same idea but in greyscale instead of color and US only: http://hint.fm/wind/

    (Edit: just looked at the about page, he does credit hint.fm as Inspiration)

    2 0
  12. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Please allow up to 5 seconds…

    Their definition of 5 seconds is quite different from mine.

    0 0
  13. Mystic Megabyte
    Alien

    Odd

    What the hell is happening in NE Iceland?

    Is this where the UFOs are going down a volcano?

    0 0
  14. Martin 15

    Land stops wind?

    I know I had read about it, but visually seeing the effect of a landmass is surprising (to me anyway).

    1 0
    1. Martin Budden
      Reply Icon

      Re: Land stops wind?

      At sea level, yes (I'm pretty sure that the wind speed 600m below where I'm sitting right now is sweet F.A.)

      Try increasing altitude to see lovely jet streams etc.: click on the word "earth" at bottom left and then choose a different height (as measured by pressure).

      0 0
  15. Lost in Cyberspace

    Yay

    Seems to work on iphone so no getting caught using the desktop

    0 0
  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great link.

    Using IE 10 I can move the earth and zoom but how do you change altitude and type of projection?

    0 0
    1. Martin Budden
      Reply Icon
      Go

      click on the word "earth" at bottom left

      0 0
  17. Potemkine Silver badge

    I'm watching it with Erik Satie in musical background... hypnotic Indeed.

    0 0
  18. Swarthy Silver badge

    What is really interesting is looking just of the south-east coast of the US, around Bermuda. I think this just shows the origins of the Infamous Triangle. That is some funky air movement there, like a total becalming, with some decent wind speeds in all directions surrounding. that could cause some wicked fog, becalming, ...and then there's the question of what causes the funky pattern. And it's not just at sea-level, but it goes up a bit.

    /...Or I've been staring at the map too long, with too much caffeine in my system, and I am starting to trip out.

    0 0
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