Ocean Surface Current Visualization-worldwide

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Bobbywhy
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This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience.

(beware, the downloadable visualization files are HUGE)

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003827/
 

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Nice thing.

I would love to be able to watch it as in Google Earth, selecting places I am interested in.

Actually I wonder if such a program would be not even smaller than the movie I just downloaded. Most of the displayed information is an extrapolation, so perhaps it is enough to remember a vector for just every whole coordinate (degs, latt & long) - and that can be stored with a reasonable accuracy in just two bytes, so 128 kB per whole map (land included), and I doubt they have data better than one measurement per day. That gives around 47 MB per year - minus 25% for lands, but perhaps more dense grid from better known areas. Still, even at 100 MB per year that's far from several GB.