Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, according to creator Linden Lab, of San Francisco. The Web site claims more than five million inhabitants from around the globe, and the population is growing explosively. Many are new to NOAA science. Of the first few thousand visitors, 35 percent said they had not previously heard of the U.S. agency.
"We're experimenting with new ways to conduct science and public education that appeal to a different sensibility and may help a new audience get excited about Earth science," says ESRL director Alexander (Sandy) MacDonald, who supported development of the site. "Recruiting the next generation of Earth scientists is a priority for NOAA. Our site offers visitors a way to experience the planet through reality-based virtual adventures. Some of them may have shied away from science in the past."
As the technology becomes more sophisticated, scientists may eventually collaborate on research, hold virtual meetings and give public presentations in the auditorium, according to ESRL's Eric Hackathorn, who developed the island with Second Life design company Aimee Weber Studios. He is developing metrics for observing traffic patterns while guaranteeing privacy rights for the avatars and their real-life selves.
"We're still brainstorming about how to use what seems to be an enormous potential," says Hackathorn. "It's a parallel world. Now what do we want to do with it? That's where we are right now." An extension to NOAA's 2-D Web site is a good start, he adds. "In the future this may be what people think of when they think of Web sites."
There's no shortage of ideas on the NOAA site, dubbed "Meteora," a Greek word meaning "things suspended in the air" -- or, in scientists' terms, atmospheric phenomena. The first climate change scenario illustrates a warming world with melting glaciers and rising sea levels. A virtual beach demonstrates how to recognize the onset of a tsunami, and eventually the site may enhance public awareness of rip tides, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. Science on a Sphere, an earlier invention of MacDonald's, makes its three-dimensional virtual debut with four examples of its 80-plus dramatic visualizations of planetary data, including a mesmerizing view of nighttime lights around the globe and a 3-D panorama of ocean, sea and lake depths. In the future, the sphere may sport its full view of Mars, a storm-after-storm replay of the 2005 hurricane season, and animations of global warming.
