Second Life has been all over the news these past two weeks. Now Aimee Weber on Second Life Insider is reporting on the work her studio did with National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to create a 3D weather visualization in Second Life. You can see it in SL at the Science Center.
In her own words:
The system works by way of dozens of scripted reporting stations dotted all over a map of the United States. These stations retrieve METAR data from the NOAA every eight minutes which they then decode and render into models of the appropriate weather phenomenon for the area. All sorts of cloud cover and precipitation models are available as well as special weather conditions such as thunderstorms and tornadoes. Temperature is represented by warmer and cooler shades of color. This 3D composite is great for giving visitors a visceral feel for the weather around them.
Being able to script models like this adds a lot of power to geodata. I can easily imagine someone creating the ability to view KML and GML in Second Life. I wonder if it would it would start to become the (other) poor man’s 3D geoviewer.