Environment-Sustainability Lunch: EsGlobe: an interactive educational resource for environmental data

Lodovica Illari - EAPS 

Glenn Flierl - EAPS

Senior Lecturer Lodovica Illari and Professor Glenn Flierl will present: EsGlobe: an interactive educational resource for environmental data.

The project, supported by a 2017 ESI Curriculum Grant, has developed an educational resource --- an interactive data display which we call EsGlobe - for rendering, and interacting with, environmental or model data on a virtual sphere displayed in a browser. The sphere can be tilted and rotated to facilitate ease of viewing. Over the past year, EsGlobe has been prototyped in a number of MIT courses and educational activities and has also been used in outreach such as lab visits and informal settings. EsGlobe has also had an important impact on our research, because it allows us to compute trajectories of particles launched in to evolving atmospheric wind patterns and ocean currents. For example it has been particularly useful in an ESI-sponsored `Plastics in the Ocean' project. We believe EsGlobe has great potential as an educational device and are actively developing it to extend its use.

Lodovica Illari is a meteorologist. She teaches large-scale dynamics and synoptic meteorology to graduate and undergraduate students and is responsible for the Synoptic Laboratory. Her research interests are in synoptic meteorology, severe weather and atmospheric blocking. Lodovica is also involved in developing innovative teaching methods and outreach to the public and schools.

Glenn Flierl studies geophysical fluid dynamics and the influence of ocean physics on its biology. This year, he is teaching large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere and ocean (with Lodovica), modelling the physics and biology of the ocean, small-scale ocean dynamics, as well as a freshman advising seminar.

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This monthly lunch seminar engages MIT faculty, post-docs, and graduate students in lively conversations about current environmental research and education at MIT.

Registration is required.