NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026

Listen to the Planet.

Discover the hidden sounds of Earth through NASA scientific data.

Press How It Works (English) or Comment sa marche (Francais) and the planet will explain.

Earth Explorer

Map type · NASA GIBS layer

↑↓←→ Move around (click the map first) Scroll Zoom in and out +− Zoom with the keyboard Drag Pan the map Click Select a location Map type Change it with the menu above

Click the map to select a location. Satellite imagery: NASA GIBS (imagery only, not the numerical data). Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Selected location

Place –
Latitude –
Longitude –
Period –
Data –

Science data

Select one, or combine two or more to hear them together.

Dates

Start End

Data

Voice explanation of this chart:

Sonification Studio

A scientific sonification: a sound generated from data values, not a recording of real sounds from Earth.

––0:00 / 0:00

Volume Speed

From NASA to Sound

How a satellite measurement becomes something you can hear.

1 · NASA

Observe

Satellites, ground stations and atmospheric models watch the Earth every day. NASA’s POWER project turns these observations into daily data for any point on the planet.

2 · Weather

Measure

The data describe weather and climate variables: air temperature, rainfall, wind speed and the sunlight reaching the ground. Each one is a simple series of numbers, one per day.

3 · Waves

Sonify

Sound is a wave. Its frequency sets the pitch, its amplitude the loudness, its shape the brightness, and its timing the rhythm. EarthWave maps each weather variable onto one of these properties.

Weather variable	NASA POWER parameter	Wave property	What you hear
Temperature	T2M	Frequency	Warmer days sound higher
Precipitation	PRECTOTCORR	Rhythm	Dry days are silent, rainy days patter
Wind	WS2M	Amplitude	Stronger wind sounds louder
Solar radiation	ALLSKY_SFC_SW_DWN	Timbre	Sunnier days sound brighter

Combine variables in the Explorer and they play together, each one as its own voice, so you can hear how temperature, rain, wind and sun move together over time.

About EarthWave

EarthWave is a prototype for the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026 challenge “The Earth Information Jukebox”. Its goal is to make Earth science data accessible through sight and sound.

Technologies: Leaflet, Chart.js, Web Audio API, Web Speech API, Node.js, Express, node-cache.

Data sources: numerical data from NASA POWER (daily, historical / near-real-time with a lag of several days, community RE); satellite imagery from NASA GIBS.

Attribution: NASA POWER data are provided by the NASA Langley Research Center POWER Project, funded through the NASA Earth Science / Applied Science Program. Imagery courtesy of NASA EOSDIS Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS). This app is not endorsed by NASA.