Energy budget meter progress

The energy budget meter for the simulator is coming along fine and I now have the data being produced that can be used to move the graphic meter indicator.

The code took a while to get correct and it works on the basis of buffering a count of the incoming and outgoing photons from a fixed number of cycles of simulator activity, then calculating a rolling average on each cycle of the simulator. This means that there is a lag between the meter output and the actual simulator activity, but the numbers produced look good and reflect what is happening.

Because the current sim has a fixed rate for incoming sunlight energy, once the buffer is full, the data for incoming energy remains static (unless the day/night cycle is activated!). So, when in the 'always day' mode, the outgoing energy will fluctuate between being greater or less than the incoming energy.

Example scenario:
Starting with the ice extent set at a minimum and allowing the energy to build up so that outgoing is about the same as incoming. Then increase the ice extent, this will cause the outgoing energy to be greater than the incoming energy, showing the sim planet to be cooling. The cooling will continue until a new balance is reached in the atmosphere. The meter will show all this activity.

Anyway now I just need to produce the graphics and do the coding to control the meter!

Energy budget meter addition

I have started working on ideas for a meter in the simulator to show the incoming (sunlight) and outgoing energy (thermal and reflected light).
So far, the hardest part of the project has been to develop the atmosphere data array and making sure it is updated correctly as the simulator cycles over time.

The problem with such a meter is that any indication will be transitory and time based. The current idea is to have a meter that will show the indicator in the centre when incoming energy equals the outgoing energy, then when one is greater than the other, the indicator will swing to the left or right.

Easy in theory, but in practice I have a feeling it will take some time, especially as the graphics and animation have to be dealt with.

First post

Hope you enjoy this site and the simulator project. Both the simulator and the site will be updated over time, to include new features and improvements.

The layout and design of the site/blog is likely to change over time, so the 'blog' part may move. New versions of the simulator will hopefully appear from time to time. Details of new versions will appear in this blog.

Simulator to do list:

1. Some sort of energy budget meter.
2. A simulation of a thinner upper atmosphere.
3. Improved interface.
4. Improved animations.
5. Moderate ice extent according to temperature.

There maybe opportunities to host the simulator such as on college or school Intranets or other locations (added 19/08/10 - I am currently considering Creative Commons licensing, but haven't made a decision yet ). More information about this will be available later, if in the mean time you have an interest in displaying/hosting the simulator, please register interest in a comment.