Each spring and summer, hundreds of storm chasers, thrill-seekers, vacationers, and scientists search for nature’s wrath. CharserTracer is a visual animation piece showing chasers’ movements as they traverse the midwest seeking twisters. While over-hyped chaser TV shows like Storm Chasers show a heavily edited micro-view of storm chasing, I wanted to create an eye-in-the-sky view of how chasers chase.
Watch the swarming, dispersing, and migrating patterns of storm chasers in these animations:
2 Days in June (101 sec – 720p, image)
30 Days in May (203 sec – 720p, image)
Monthly Traces (49 sec – 720p, image)
What insights into storm chasing can you glean from these animations? Post feedback and suggestions.
I created ChaserTracer with data from Spotter Network, who shared 7 months of 1-second GPS data from 100′s of chasers. (Much thanks to Spotter Network.) Storm damage reports from tornadoes, winds, and hail were obtained from NOAA. I also created ChaserTracer to learn how to plot location data with Processing, made easier by the Unfolding library. Audio help from Kevin Snyder.
Technology used:
- Processing software – a great data processing and display language. Want the program? Just email me.
- Unfolding – powerful and easy-to-use mapping library
- Chaser data from Spotter Network
- Damage reports from NOAA
- Audio tracks via GarageBand
- Map backgrounds from Microsoft
