一項最新的行動應用技術，將過去大多只有地球和環境學家使用的氣候、地震等等之類相關的圖像和數據庫平民化，讓一般大衆也可以享用。
地球觀測軟體EarthObserver App可以在iPhone、iPad或iPod Touch設備上顯示陸上、水裏和空中的天然地形特徵和氣流。
該軟體是由哥倫比亞大學的 拉蒙特-多爾蒂地球觀測站(Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory)所發明的。其設計以直覺式的觸控方式，借用手指的滑動，就可以使用幾十個遍布世界各地經常更新的數據庫。目前在蘋果網路商店應用軟體的教育網站可以自行免費下載。但短期内預計終會開始販售收取小額費用。
EarthObserver用戶可以將太平洋深海峽谷或紐約港波痕放大仔細探索。看到地球板塊移動頻率；或調出過去某個特定地點的地震、火山和其他災害相關資料。
用戶可以查詢河口浮游生物的生育力； 一年中不同月份的北極冰帽覆蓋的範圍、全球各地過去和現在的溫度;人口分佈和生活水平指數； 甚至是雲層覆蓋圖、凍土和岩石類型等等。
該數據庫跨越政治界限，内涵美國近海水域和湖泊圖表，以及甚至可以用來規劃美國境内爬山的地形圖。
其他支援EarthObserver的數據庫，還有拉蒙特所擁有的海洋地球科學數據系統（Marine Geoscience Data System），提供海洋學方面的數據。
科學家們已持續在一般電腦上，透過天文台的GeoMapApp和3 - D虛擬海洋軟體進入該數據庫，但即便免費對公眾開放，這些研究導向的應用軟體對多數人而言，操作上仍顯複雜。
例如GeoMapApp軟體，目前就只有大約 4000名用戶，主要為科學家。拉蒙特負責該項計劃的海洋地質學家威廉萊恩（William Ryan）表示：「Marine Geoscience Data System完全簡化程序並易於使用。」
美國國家科學基金會（The U.S. National Science Foundation）也加入彙編 EarthObserver的基本地圖，提供詳細的陸地海拔高度和海床深度。
視衛星、研究船隻和其他資訊來源所提供的新資訊，許多的數據也隨著每月更新一次。
萊恩表示，其他正在進行數據整合的資料來自數千陸上與研究船隻上的科學家、技術人員和船員。以及自1930年代以來即一直在製作各類圖表的政府機構，和由美國國家航空暨太空總署（NASA）與相關機構所提供的衛星數據。
Images and data on climate, earthquakes and much more is now available in a new mobile application that offers users simplified access to libraries that until now were tapped mainly by earth and environmental scientists.
The EarthObserver App, for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, displays natural features and forces on land, undersea and in the air.
Created at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, it works on an intuitive level with touches of the fingers, drawing on dozens of frequently updated databases from institutions throughout the world. For a limited time, it may be downloaded free at the education section of the Apple app store. The app will eventually retail for a small fee.
With EarthObserver, users can zoom into and explore Pacific deep-sea canyons, or ripple marks in New York harbor. The can visualize Earth's tectonic plates and their rates of movement; or call up histories of earthquakes, volcanoes and other hazards in specific places.
Users can view plankton productivity at river mouths; see Arctic ice cover during different months of the year, or temperatures past and present across the world; plot human populations and indexes of their well-being; or access maps of cloud cover, permafrost or rock types.
The application comes with overlays of political boundaries, and includes charts of U.S. offshore waters and lakes, as well as topographical maps of the United States suitable for planning hikes.
Among other databases feeding EarthObserver, Lamont's own Marine Geoscience Data System supplies the oceanography.
Scientists have already been accessing this data on conventional computers via the observatory's GeoMapApp and 3-D Virtual Ocean; but while free to the public, those research-oriented tools are complex to manipulate.
GeoMapApp, for instance, currently has only about 4,000 users, mostly scientists. "This completely simplifies it and makes it easy to use," said William Ryan, a marine geologist at Lamont who directed the project.
The U.S. National Science Foundation has supported compilation of EarthObserver's base map, with its detailed land elevations and seabed depths.
Many datasets are updated monthly as new information comes in from satellites, research ships and other sources.
Ryan said that ongoing synthesis of other data has come from thousands of scientists, technicians and crew members aboard research ships and on land, and government agencies that have been making all kinds of charts since the 1930s, along with data now coming in from satellites run by NASA and related institutions.
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In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
