Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

Steven Lake
Steven Lake Solar Expert Posts: 402 ✭✭
http://hint.fm/wind/

Just found out about this today. It's not actually made by Google, but rather two of its employees working on their free time. It's a dynamic, real time map of hourly wind patterns over the entire continental US and it even has an archive of previous days. They're looking to expand it to the entire world (as soon as they find viable data sources) so eventually you'll be able to track wind patterns around the world in real time. :)

Given that "wind" is one of the green energy sources discussed here, I figured it was worth mentioning. :)

Comments

  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    hmmm. it seems to me it would show up better if the differing wind speeds were of a different color much like those we see for weather radar.
  • Steven Lake
    Steven Lake Solar Expert Posts: 402 ✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    Well, they've got a rough scale setup where the more visible the lines are, the stronger the winds. I agree that it should probably be color coded, but what they have now, given how young the project is, does do the job...well, reasonably so. lol.
  • boB
    boB Solar Expert Posts: 1,030 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    That's pretty darn cool !
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    too bad it stops at the 49 th..
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
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    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • Lee Dodge
    Lee Dodge Solar Expert Posts: 112 ✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta
    niel wrote: »
    hmmm. it seems to me it would show up better if the differing wind speeds were of a different color much like those we see for weather radar.

    Weren't you the same one who said that those photos by Ansel Adams were OK, but it is just too bad they were not in color? :D

    Let's hear it for artistic freedom. I think that map makes it easy to visualize what the wind patterns are doing, and, just as important, is really cool looking!
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta
    Lee Dodge wrote: »
    Weren't you the same one who said that those photos by Ansel Adams were OK, but it is just too bad they were not in color? :D

    Let's hear it for artistic freedom. I think that map makes it easy to visualize what the wind patterns are doing, and, just as important, is really cool looking!

    not too sure what you are referring to, but i value my freedom of opinion over the artistic freedom of a wind map. give me a break.
  • WindTurbineTechnicians
    WindTurbineTechnicians Registered Users Posts: 1
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    Very cool. Does anyone know what altitudes these readings are being taken at?
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Wind Map - A New Google Product....Sorta

    This is where the data is supposed to be from:

    http://ndfd.weather.gov/technical.htm

    I did not find much with a quick look through.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • windbarb
    windbarb Registered Users Posts: 2
    On the same note, but with a bit more science (actually derived product from my master-study at University) I have build a website to quickly get to the annual energy output for any type of Turbine. In fact, I now have around 300+ Turbines in my DB. Please have a look at http://windbarb.com/feasibility.php#!feasibility . Any question or remarks are of course welcome to me.
  • New_Mexico_Will
    New_Mexico_Will Registered Users Posts: 107 ✭✭
    Where do you access the archive of previous days' data?  I don't see that.