Inside blue dots - Grasping dynamic global fields thanks to Virtual Reality

Globe representation of the Earth has a long history in pedagogy and outreach. To help people realize global processes, these representations allow the conception and the manipulation of global fields and planetary geography. The realization of a physical representation of such global fields is demanding. 3D printing allows representing well scalar data at a fixed time, via for example the deformation of elevation maps. We propose here an alternative allowing to represent easily dynamic fields, and reproducing in a simple principle the effect obtained by the first astronauts visualizing planet Earth as a "pale blue dot". To that effect, we use virtual reality and represent mobile fields on a globe, associated with a physical object permitting spatial manipulation. The open software Unity, common in videogame conception and development, and the library Vuforia, allowing virtual reality, are utilized for the development. The fields represented are associated with the solid earth, and with oceanic and atmospheric dynamics: Seismic velocity fields, global seismicity catalogs, geoid, geothermal gradient, or oceanic and atmospheric currents. The software is can be easily deployed on tablets and phones, complementing printed images.