August 17, 2011 -- Makai Ocean Engineering has released a demo version of their highly anticipated software, Makai Voyager. The driving motivation behind its development is to provide scientists with an easy to use program to process, analyze, and display the exponentially increasing amount of data being collected from atmospheric and other sensors around the globe.

The full version will allow users to view and interact with large and complex scientific datasets in an immersive 3D environment. The program runs on a standard desktop PC running Windows, Mac OSX, or Linux, and can handle a wide range of data, including: terrain imagery, elevation, LIDAR, volumetric and flow data, KML objects, and more. A free viewer will allow clients to view and analyze data that has been pre-processed by the full version. Software modules specific to various scientific fields are currently under development.

The general public is invited to visit voyager.makai.com to download and test the free demo version 1.0, which will include capabilities for viewing terrain imagery, elevation, LIDAR, and web map services (WMS) datasets. Beta testers will be able to explore 3D landscapes and influence the direction of the software development. Demo version 1.1 will feature volume and flow data capabilities, and is expected to be released in the second half of September.