Global Wind Screensaver
The Global Wind screensaver advects particles across a globe using real wind speed and direction measured at 84 points around the world. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.
How the Global Wind screensaver works
The saver renders with three.js on your GPU. The library is vendored into this site rather than fetched from a CDN, and loads only when a 3D screensaver actually runs.
It reads Open-Meteo, which returns the whole grid in a single key-less request.
The scene resizes with the window and releases its WebGL context when the saver stops, so shuffle mode and Multi-view can cycle 3D savers without exhausting the browser's context limit.
If WebGL is unavailable the saver says so on screen rather than showing an empty black box.
A worked example
Particles are seeded across the sphere and pushed by the field sampled from the nearest grid point, leaving a streak behind them coloured by speed. The large-scale pattern emerges: westerlies running left to right through the mid latitudes, trade winds running the other way nearer the equator. The grid is coarse on purpose — the whole field arrives in one request, which is the difference between a screensaver and a weather product.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the scene; Speed changes the pace of the motion and the camera.
- Add it to a Multi-view grid, though 3D savers are heavier than 2D ones and a few per screen is plenty.
- Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Why nearest-point rather than smooth interpolation?
- Because 84 samples do not justify it. Interpolating smoothly would invent detail the data does not contain and imply a resolution that is not there. Nearest-sample is honest about the grid being coarse.
- Which way does the wind blow?
- Meteorological convention reports the direction wind comes from, not where it goes. The saver adds 180° before moving anything, which is a classic way to get a wind map exactly backwards.
- Does this need a special browser or plugin?
- No. It uses WebGL, which every current desktop and mobile browser supports. Nothing is installed and no plugin is required.
- Does it cost anything or need an account?
- No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up.