Linking Interactive Concept Models into the Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE) Daniel J. Bramer, Rajul Pandya, Mary Marlino, Don Murray, Jeff McWhirter, Stuart Wier, Tim Scheitlin, Mohan Ramamurthy, and Robert Wilhelmson NCAR Scientific Computing Division January 13, 2004

Concept Models Before… Interactive, but stand-alone Teach simple concepts of atmospheric science. User controlled ‘laboratory’ environments A good collection, but final goals not yet met. Interactivity with data sets

VGEE Before… Easy-to-use Visualization Environment Based in UNIDATA IDV – more later Student-constructed visualizations Solid Curricula and Activities Built around El Niño phenomena Available online Needed help linking advanced visualizations to simpler concepts that create them

UNIDATA Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) Java-based 3D visualization environment Designed to handle complex atmospheric and oceanic data sets Numerical Models, Radar, Surface Obs., Satellite, etc. Easy-to-use Extensible & Customizable Free

Linking the two Linking possible because both IDV and Concept Models programmed in Java Met with IDV developers Made adaptations to the Concept Models Created a new skin for the VGEE-IDV Added one-touch access to certain IDV features

The Result… A fully-functional VGEE version of the IDV.

The Result… Students create visualizations, then insert probes into the data set that are linked to the Concept Models.

The Result… The Concept Models report specific information regarding the environment and show it in its viewing window.

Benefits Students have a better chance to understand some of the basic elements that contribute to more complex systems. The concept models help the students to think about their visualizations more critically Does this visualization help me understand what’s happening? They also gain confidence because they made and understand a scientific visualization they constructed themselves.

Future Extensibility The extensibility of the IDV allows for future concept model development not only from us, but from any interested party. This can allow anyone with programming experience to contribute to the collection of models – even customizing models that fit with their own classes and curricula.

Thank You! VGEE UNIDATA IDV http://www.dpc.ucar.edu/vgee/ http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/IDV/