Hey you! Get into my cloud.
Millersville University professor of earth sciences Richard Clark soon will bid his students do just that, courtesy of GEOpod.
Also known as the Geosciences Probe of Discovery, GEOpod soars through the sky, only in the virtual sense, mind you.
It's a federally funded software program Clark is developing with Sepi Yalda, a department of earth sciences colleague, and Gary Zoppetti, associate professor of computer science.
Clark says it's the next best thing to a weather-research plane.
Students — or anyone else with sufficient computer memory — will be able to sit at a keyboard and zoom through an approaching cold front, for example, using real-time weather data.
There's nothing abstract about it.
"You're not flying through numbers," Clark explained. "You're flying through real visual images of data.
"To our knowledge, nothing like this exists."
Just like in an aircraft, Yalda said, the "instruments" on the screen will display such measurements as altitude, barometric pressure and temperature.
Creation of the innovative learning tool is being funded by a three-year, $350,000 National Science Foundation grant received in early October.
Half to 60 percent of the GEOpod should be completed within a year, Clark said.
Then, buckle up.
Virtually speaking, Clark added, "You actually will be flying through clouds."
Where the jet stream is
GEOpod is a deliberate attempt to capitalize on the vast popularity of electronic gaming.
More than 87 million people in this country play computer games, Clark said. "There are millions of students out there, and we're trying to tap into that."
But GEOpod is fundamentally different from such commercially available offerings as Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
First, Clark said, it isn't based on a synthetic environment invented by graphic artists.
GEOpod skies will take shape around actual weather satellites' feeds, radar and 3-D data from computer models.
Second, Clark added, "It will be guided by a lesson plan. ... This isn't for entertainment, although we hope it's entertaining."
Students will enter the GEOpod realm with assigned tasks, such as exploring the relationship between wind speeds at different altitudes.
"You can say, 'Let's see where the jet stream
is,' " Clark said. "I can fly inside the jet stream" and interact with the atmosphere in multihued 3-D.
Different students will be able to use the program simultaneously and share what they're seeing worldwide, Clark said.
It's all possible thanks to the Integrated Data Viewer application developed by software engineers at the Unidata Program Center in Boulder, Colo.
IDV is written in JavaScript and can run on Mac, Windows or Linux operating systems.
The GEOpod project consists largely of modifying the source code to create an IDV plug-in, Zoppetti said in an e-mail.
The big challenge will be to develop an interface that's "intuitive, engaging and flexible enough for users of various levels of sophistication," Zoppetti noted.
Modifying a source that has more than a million lines of code could be tricky, he added.
The project is already under way, thanks to a prototype Zoppetti and one of his students developed about a year and a half ago.
Other students will assist in developing and test driving GEOpod.
In addition, the MU team is contracting with a graphic artist, who will design the GEOpod console, and an educational psychologist, who will evaluate GEOpod's effectiveness in teaching students.
The Millersville project could be the model for a new learning approach that simulates real-world environments in many disciplines.
Because the application is open-source, anyone could tweak the code to meet his particular education requirements.
Plug in neurological data, for example, Clark said, and "you'll be able to move around in the human brain." Enter the right tectonic plate info, and "you'd be able to fly beneath the surface of the earth."
But GEOpod initially will stick to the wild blue yonder, Clark said.
"Our project will concentrate on the meteorological component, flying through the atmosphere."