You may not need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, but the data that climate researchers collect can certainly deliver some beautiful visualizations of the currents constantly swirling in the skies and oceans.

Witness the Perpetual Ocean, a project of NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. This video, shown below, depicts the flow of ocean currents around the globe. Others have noted how the viz resembles van Gogh’s Starry Night painting.

Similarly, a couple of ex-Google employes have produced a great visualization of winds in the United States. The map from hint.fm is updated hourly with data from the National Digital Forecast Database. The viz doesn’t embed easily, but below is a screenshot of the map.