Throughout much of 2022, NIHHIS worked closely with a cross-NOAA team (NOAA Global Systems Laboratory + Office of Education / Science on a Sphere + NESDIS Viz Lab) to create a Virtual Reality tour of Washington DC’s Urban Heat Island using data from the NIHHIS Urban Heat Island Citizen Science Field campaign that occurred in DC years earlier. This project was awarded an Innovation Champion Award by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, a testament to the creative use of technology to improve climate resilience by reaching new audiences in new ways.
The NOAA VR team has aspirations of developing the pilot VR experience into a publicly released beta, as well as exploring additional applications of this technology to education, outreach, engagement, and ultimately supporting solutions to heat and all other climate challenges faced by the Nation.
The award will be received at the ACT-IAC Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference May 7-9 in Cambridge, MD.
For more information, contact Hunter Jones.
Photo credits: Tom DiLiberto
