Direct Link: NASA’s Eyes
Linked from: http://climate.jpl.nasa.gov/, http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/earthday/
Let us know what you think. We will most likely do another version and would like the feedback.
Thanks!
–Paul
Very nicely done. Only crit I might have is when you “zoom” on a satellite the mouse middle scroll button control seems a bit funky. I would have thought it would be nice to be able to spin a 3D model of the satellite around. But it’s a minor thing.
How did you feed the real time satellite positions into the webplayer?
Good stuff as always Paul!
We are working on an update so I will look into this middle scroll button business. So what is funky about it? You are able to spin the 3D model around, I just double checked. We only have 3 (aqua, ostm, cloudsat) models implemented in the release.
The satellite positions are all preprocessed into an animation file that is streamed in. We use the two-line elements from celestrak. This works pretty well for most satellites except ISS. Especially since ISS just made an adjustment to their orbit a few days ago. When things like that happens, I just regenerate the animation files.
Thanks for giving the unity app a look.
–Paul
Thanks Tom. See you at this years Unite!
–Paul
Really nice
As a GFX geek, I really like how it looks when the sun rises through the atmosphere.
I am glad someone noticed that. 
–Paul
I was going to comment on that!
I love the effect it gives, i played around with the camera and it makes the sun gradually change from whites to yellows and oranges. quite beautiful.
love the shader you used for the planet!