Ever wonder what you are flying over? A new free app, Flyover Country, has the answer for you.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, researchers in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Earth Sciences developed the offline mobile app.
The free app lets users track their flight using GPS and discover the world below with geologic maps and points of interest.
The app analyzes a flight path and caches relevant data for users to browse during the flight, without using in-flight WiFi.
“By downloading only the data relevant to a particular flight path, file sizes remain reasonable, allowing for a robust experience without a live Internet connection,” officials note.
The app captures and integrates interactive geologic maps, several Earth Science databases, offline base maps, and the user’s current GPS-determined location, altitude, speed, and heading.
The free app is available for download for both Android and iOS.