Global Systems Laboratory

February 4, 2020

Science on a Sphere (SOS) Explorer

The NOAA Global Systems Laboratory’s Science on a Sphere (SOS) Explorer™ and SOS Explorer™ Mobile team has been chosen as the 2020 recipient of the Impact Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). SOS Explorer and SOS Explorer Mobile were developed by a NOAA Global Systems Laboratory team that includes Eric Hackathorn, Hilary Peddicord (CIRES), Beth Russell (CIRES), Jonathan Joyce (CIRES) and Keith Searight (CIRA).

SOS Explorer™ and SOS Explorer™ Mobile share Earth science data with a global audience using visually stunning movies on a virtual globe. SOS Explorer’s™ low-cost software was first released in 2016 and has been installed in 36 museums and schools. GSL estimates an additional 8-10 museum installs in 2020. SOS Explorer is based on the original room-sized Science On a Sphere® systems that already reach an estimated 63 million viewers.

As tablets become more common in the classroom, it is expected more teachers and students will adopt SOS Explorer™ Mobile as part of the school curriculum. The SOS Explorer Mobile free app was released on September 1, 2019, and has had 22,000 downloads with more than 50,000 downloads expected in its first year.

SOS Explorer™ and SOS Explorer™ Mobile are also featured in the FLC calendar for June 2020.

The FLC is the Congressionally-mandated organization that educates, promotes, and facilitates Federal Technology Transfer for more than 300 federal laboratories. The FLC Impact Award honors employees of FLC member laboratories and non-laboratory staff whose technology transfer efforts have made a lasting and tangible impact on the populace or marketplace, ranging from a local to a global scale.

The SOS team will be honored at an award ceremony on Thursday, April 30, 2020 at the FLC National Meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Science on a Sphere (SOS) Explorer

For more information contact: Susan Cobb 303-497-5093