SOS Explorer® Mobile FAQ

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.

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 Questionswith Supplemental Materials to use as a jumping off point for an activity, discussion, or investigation.

There are a number of different ways to mirror an iPhone or iPad onto a display or projector. AppleTV or an AnyCast device can be used to cast. A lightning dongle can also be used to connect to HDMI and other AV inputs.

There are a number of different ways to mirror a tablet, phone or Chromebook onto a display or projector. Chromecast or an AnyCast device can be used to cast. A USB-C dongle can also be used to connect to HDMI and other AV inputs.

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.

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.

If the datasets seem to be playing fine except when you play with the animation controls, you may be experiencing some buffering issues. An example of this would be if you slide the frame slider or press the go to last frame button, and it doesn’t update the image. 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.

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

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.

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, you can add your own content to the version of SOS Explorer that runs on Window computers

Yes, there is a selection of real-time datasets available in the mobile app.

Yes! SOS Explorer is freely available for use on Windows computers. We also have a room-sized sphere called Science On a Sphere® that is available.

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.

collected removed with it at the time of removal or is there contact methods to remove data collected though your app?

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.

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