EGU2020-11708
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11708
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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

Renaud Toussaint1,2, Paula Koelemeijer3, and Christophe Zaroli1
Renaud Toussaint et al.
  • 1CNRS UMR7516 IPGS, Geophysics, Strasbourg Cedex, France (renaud.toussaint@unistra.fr)
  • 2SFF Porelab, The Njord Center, Physics Dept, University of Oslo, Norway
  • 3Dept of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London

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.

How to cite: Toussaint, R., Koelemeijer, P., and Zaroli, C.: Inside blue dots - Grasping dynamic global fields thanks to Virtual Reality, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11708, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11708, 2020

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