SOS Explorer® Mobile FAQ

Curious about the SOS Explorer® Mobile app? We have you covered.

The NOAA Science On a Sphere® team in Boulder, CO, developed a flat-screen virtual globe version of SOS (a room-sized animated globe) in order to get their vast dataset catalog out to the world. The flat-screen version of SOS is called SOS Explorer® and it is now available as a free mobile app, SOS Explorer® Mobile.

The datasets found on this app are visualizations that have been created from environmental satellites and computer models made by scientists at NOAA, NASA, and academic institutions. The info button for each dataset will give you more information about the dataset you’re looking at, including details about the source. We are also working to develop materials for you to use with this app to help you learn even more. Check out our uses and resources page for a list.

You’ll find classroom suggestions, activities, and lessons on our SOS Explorer Resources page. For example, we have designed some Phenomenon-based Learning Modules that are NGSS paired and Guiding Questions with Supplemental Materials to use as a jumping off point for an activity, discussion, or investigation. See more on our Resources page.

See our section on displaying SOSx on SOS Explorer Resources page.

Go to ToolsSettingsUser Interface Scale. Adjust the slider bar to the left to make UI smaller and to the right to make it bigger.

SOSx Mobile is a streaming application, therefore you must have a decent Internet connection. Make sure you are connected to WiFi. Close and restart the app. If still not working go to ToolsSettings press Purge Cache. If you’re sure you’ve done all of these, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

You may be experiencing some buffering issues. Be patient and try to scrub the image (move the frame slider back and forth) until hopefully the image catches up.

Make sure your ringer is on (if you’re on a phone) and your volume is up.

You can rotate the Earth with two fingers or triple tap the screen with one finger to reset the view.

The last place where you touched the sphere is reported under lat, lon at the bottom middle of the screen.

In the top left corner, where you see the dataset loaded, press the i button to access the dataset description.

70MB plus whatever data you download that can be cleared through the SettingsClear Cache. The app’s cache is set to take up no more than 10% of your available space. If you have less than 500MB available on your device, the cache is disabled.

SOS Explorer® is a flat-screen version of our room-sized animated globe, Science On a Sphere®. If you want to learn more about our team’s products go to sos.noaa.gov.

See our section on displaying SOSx on our Resources page.

AirPlay can definitely be finicky. I’ve found it helps to start SOS Explorer® first and then swipe down from the top to enable AirPlay once the application is already started. If you start AirPlay first and then launch SOS Explorer® sometimes you just get a black screen.

Fill out the feedback form in the app accessed by the “hot button” on the bottom of the screen.

Under the animation control window, there is a small arrow that opens a frames per second dropdown where you can choose an appropriate speed.

No, not on the app; however, if you want to contact us about the possibility of getting an exhibit quality version of SOS Explorer® where you can add your own content, find out more at sos.noaa.gov.

The only real-time data that you can currently see in our app are the static clouds that load upon loading and unloading datasets. Otherwise, real-time data — like we have on SOS and SOS Explorer® Exhibit — is a tricky (currently not yet invented) task for a streaming data app. We hope to be able to add this soon. We have real-time datasets both on Science On a Sphere® and SOS Explorer® (exhibit version), find out more at sos.noaa.gov.

We have a room-sized sphere called Science On a Sphere®, and a flat-screen exhibit quality version of this app called SOS Explorer®. You can learn more about both by visiting sos.noaa.gov.

Not yet. Coming soon!

SOS Explorer® Mobile License Agreement.

The app shouldn’t request any special permissions.

Absolutely. Under no circumstances will it ever refuse to open the pod bay doors.

No personally identifiable information is collected unless you reach out to support and request a response. We do keep aggregate totals on which datasets are popular and crash statistics if you choose to share your performance data with Apple or Google. See our privacy policy for more details.