JMU - Science on a Sphere
About Science on a Sphere
James Madison is the first university to acquire Science on a Sphere (SOS)—a sphere-shaped, visualization tool that was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To date, SOS has primarily been installed in museums. This tool is currently being piloted by a variety of trained JMU faculty and staff who utilize SOS for research, education, and outreach.
The sphere is installed in a renovated theater in Memorial Hall’s former auxiliary gym. SOS uses four projectors to project onto the surface of a six-foot diameter sphere.
Many of the current images for SOS use processed satellite data. The observer has the illusion of seeing Earth from an astronaut’s perspective in space. The conventional objective of SOS is an educational tool to expose the audience to issues and fundamentals of science. Accordingly, SOS comes with dozens of “movies” and images depicting environmental processes of Earth, such as global climate effects and changes in land formations.
Events
Science on a Sphere was obtained via a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That grant funding, which originally included outreach components, has concluded. JMU offers free demonstrations at various times throughout the academic year. We will post these dates on this website as well as notify the local media. Please check back often to receive updates on this exciting and innovative learning tool.
Professional Development
If you are JMU faculty or staff and are interested in the training possibilities to use SOS in your research or classes, we invite you to contact sphere@jmu.edu.
Contact Us
If you have questions about JMU’s Science on a Sphere, please contact us at sphere@jmu.edu or for more information, visit NOAA’s SOS website at http://sos.noaa.gov/.
