ETheater

Offering visually stunning views of the Earth from space, the ETheater will be presented to the general public Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in the Monona Terrace exhibition hall. Middle and high school students will attend previously scheduled shows during the day.

Movies made from images like this, showing vorticity, from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones group, will be shown in the Electronic Theater.

The ETheater reveals the beauty of Earth with scientific insight and technological prowess. Dr. Hasler presents the Earth in several dimensions and in a historical perspective. You'll fly in from outer space to Wisconsin and to the shores of Madison’s four lakes. Early images, from the 1960s, are contrasted with the latest U.S. and international images of the whole Earth and of tornadoes and hurricanes. From the first geostationary weather satellite image in 1966 at the University of Wisconsin through the current GOES, the Earth’s small size is evident.

If you attend the ETheater, you'll see spectacular images of the earth at night from an Air Force weather satellite-cities, fishing fleets, gas flares. Many other images will be provided by UW–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center, of tropical cyclones, burning fires, Antarctica, Wisconsin, and more, from NOAA and NASA satellites. SSEC has collected this data for scientific purposes since 1965. Landsat imagery showing Wisconsin in spring, summer and fall is provided by UW–Madison’s Environmental Remote Sensing Center, who also provide a digital high-resolution map of the campus, produced with the Department of Civil Engineering and others.

Wisconsin, as seen by the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), on NASA’s Terra earth science research satellite.

Fritz Hasler, the ETheater master showman, is a visualization scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C. He is also a Madison native and alumnus of Madison schools and UW–Madison’s Department of Meteorology.

These organizations are making the ETheater possible:

• U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
  
• the American Meteorological Society
  
• the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center and Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
  
• the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau
  
• and, especially, the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, including its Community and Public Relations group.

Silicon Graphics Incorporated provides support for the Onyx II Graphics Supercomputer used in the Etheater and Pinnacle Systems provides an HDTV nonlinear editing system.

Media representatives can contact Angie Smith, Director, Community & Public Relations at Monona Terrace, for access to morning presentations of the ETheater on Tuesday or Wednesday, October 16 or 17.

For general information on the ETheater and to arrange interviews, contact SSEC's Public Information Officer, 608-263-3373.

10-2-01 TG