1. SOS operates with 4 projectors casting rotating images onto a 1.7-m diameter spherical projection screen to create the effect of Earth, planet, or satellite floating in space. Imagery and data for SOS are obtained from a variety of government organizations, sometimes post- processed by various individuals, including the authors. Static datasets in a cylindrical equidistant map projection may be prepared for display using popular image formats such as a 2048x4096 JPEG image. A set of static images in a directory constitutes a movie. Displaying Planetary and Geophysical Datasets on NOAA’s Science on a Sphere™ Introduction NOAA’s Science on a Sphere™ (SOS), was developed with a goal to educate the public about the changing Earth and its processes. This system presents NOAA’s global science via a 3D representation of our planet as if the viewer were looking at the Earth from outer space. SOS is being fielded in various museums, such as Nauticus (Norfolk), Maryland Science Center (Baltimore), Science Museum of Minnesota (St. Paul), Bishop Museum (Honolulu), Tech Museum of Innovation (San Jose), Smithsonian Museum of Nature and Science, and at NASA Goddard. It was developed (and recently patented) at NOAA/ESRL. We describe here the preparation of various global datasets depicting various Solar system objects (including Earth). Moon Still frame datasets such as this Clementine map of the moon can be rendered on the SOS directly from a cylindrical projection 4096x8192 JPEG image. Further information about these datasets and how they were obtained and processed is available at http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html. This features a catalogue of about 25 solar system planets/satellites plus several Earth related datasets.http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html For overall information about Science on a Sphere please visit http://sos.noaa.gov Clementine map of the moon (cylindrical projection). Steven C. Albers David Himes ARGO Global Oceanic Buoy Network Moon as rendered as an audience member would view it standing near the Science on a Sphere™ Below is a cylindrical projection of a single frame of a Jupiter movie from the Cassini spacecraft. Showing many frames in succession constitutes a movie spanning a 10-day period in 1.1 hour time steps. A uniform background was added to fill in data near the poles. Venus This radar map of Venus was assembled by overlaying three left-ward looking Magellan mosaics created by Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society on top of a previous map courtesy of Calvin Hamilton. Bright areas are high in radar reflectivity. About 80% of the cylindrical area is covered by Emily’s high-resolution data while the rest is filled in with intensity information from Calvin’s cylindrical map. The map can be rendered directly onto SOS. Jupiter 60 hour weather forecast of 500 Hpa height (contours and image) from NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) model valid at 0000UTC Nov 20, 2005. This is a single frame of a 180 hour animation having 3 hour increments. This rendering for an SOS projector shows NASA’s “Blue Marble” Earth image overlain with positions of underwater buoys from the ARGO network. The intensity of each green icon corresponds to the approximate depth. This is a still frame from an animation spanning several months. SOS shown as a museum exhibit Alexander E. Macdonald Courtesy NASA/USGS/Jens Meyer Images from this frame as rendered for each LCD projector, spaced at 90 degree intervals around the equator of the sphere. Note the shading at the edges that helps in the blending of all four projected images to create a seamless spherical mosaic. Courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Mimas This map of Saturn’s moon Mimas was assembled by reprojecting and overlaying several preliminary Cassini images (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) on top of a Voyager data map created by Paul Schenk (Lunar and Planetary Institute). Some of the individual Cassini images are shown above the map. It is hoped to make a future version using improved calibrated images. GFS Atmospheric Forecast Model Cassini Images Cylindrical Map Views from Science On A Sphere™ Global Weather Satellite Global IR weather satellite mosaic obtained from the Aviation Weather Center. We next quality control each image and combine with NASA’s Blue Marble dataset. Time interpolation then yields a 90-day animation with 15-min time steps.