• Map - toggle the map display window on/off...you may drag this window around as needed. The map shows the day and night regions of the Earth and the background map shows the monthly average incoming shortwave radiation.
• Top View - changes the viewpoint to be from the "top"
• Oblique View - changes the viewpoint to be from the "side"
• Rotation - make the Earth rotate fasster than "real-time" (that is, more than one rotation per 24 hours)
  (Note that when the map is showing, the rotation rate is reduced by a factor of 2.)
• Orbit - check to have rotation and orbit synchronized
• Faster Orbit - check to make the orbit faster and not be synchronized to the rotation (to ~14.3 degrees per second, or one complete orbit in about 25 seconds)
• Solar Insolation Graph - toggle on/off the graph of the Average Daily Solar Insolation at the top of the atmosphere
• Month slider - as the Earth orbits the Sun, this shows the month during the year; you may also grab the slider thumb to move as desired.

Go BACK to Explore the Atmosphere!