A perspective on visualization Nancy Soreide Christopher Moore NOAA/PMEL Colloquium on High-Performance Computing in Climate and Weather Research June 20, 2002, Princeton, NJ

Background Computational power is increasing Observational systems sample the environment more densely Environmental data and model results have become increasingly large, complex, and are geographically distributed across heterogeneous computing platforms Posing a problem which has been recognized for some time…

Solution “Scientific visualization, exploiting the brain’s natural pattern recognition ability, is the best means available for making sense of large, complex scientific datasets…” Data and Visualization Corridors, Report on the 1998 DVC Workshop Series, Edited by Paul H. Smith and John van Rosendale, Sponsored by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, 1998.

Model output of Bering Sea sea surface height colored by temperature Contouring can mask high frequency signals Small-scale Large-scale

Contouring masks high frequency signals High frequency spikes in the bathymetry data are obvious in the 3D plot (right) and are obscured in the 2D plot above. Calculations of bathymetry gradients to identify regions of internal tide generation would be impacted by these spikes in the bathymetry data. Astoria Canyon Bathymetry

Today’s Technologies For Outreach and for Science

Evolution in graphics Hurricane Floyd, GFDL model simulation From paper to the desktop Hand contouring Software generated contours Ferret, Matlab, krieging methods Software generated isosurfaces Matlab isosurfaces, Ferret mesh plots 3D with Vis5D, Iris Explorer

Emergent Technologies Pollock larvae near Kodiak Island, AK, PMEL model results Interacting with the data  3D stereographic visualization  Virtual Reality  Immersive Virtual Reality

3D stereographic visualization the depth perception which stereographic vision affords us is lost. “ “Viewing a three-dimensional surface printed on a flat page is like viewing the world with one eye closed - the depth perception which stereographic vision affords us is lost. “ With two eyes “With two eyes you clearly see which parts of the object lie in front of or behind other parts, and clearly distinguish up from down, left from right, and forward from backward.” … a researcher who routinely uses low-cost 3D stereographic visualization on his desktop PC

3D stereographic visualization A 99-cent pair of red/green sci-fi glasses will cause the vectors to pop out of the page, revealing the true 3D motions. In this flat vector field from a biophysical model, true direction and magnitude is difficult to detect.

Immersive Virtual Reality Provides the graphical illusion of being in a three- dimensional space by displaying visual output in 3D and stereo Navigating through our virtual environments and viewing the data from different vantage points greatly increases our ability to perform analysis of scientific data. Users of advanced immersion technologies affirm that no other techniques provide a similar sense of presence and insight into their datasets.

The CAVE The CAVE is a multi-person, high resolution, 3D graphics video and audio virtual environment, the size of a small room. Inside a CAVE, scientists are fully immersed in their data. Images appear to float in space, with the user free to "walk" around them. View of the CAVE CAVES have been deployed in academia, government, and industry, including NASA, NCAR, NCSA, ARSC, Argon National Laboratory, Caterpillar Corp., General Motors, among others. Scientist inside the CAVE

The ImmersaDesk The ImmersaDesk is a portable, semi-immersive virtual reality device. Over 195 immersive virtual reality devices, from 9 different vendors, were in use in Feb 2000, over 2 years ago.

NOAA ImmersaDesk Road Tour NOAA Tech 2002, Oct 2001, Silver Spring, MD AOML, Jan 2002, Miami, FL President Bush demo, Feb 2002, Silver Spring, MD NSSL, Feb 2002, Norman, OK CABLE 2002/NOAA booth, May 2002, New Orleans, LA Boulder Labs, June 2002, Boulder, CO Future plans: GFDL, NCEP, …

Virtual Reality Supercell visualization showing rare positive ground strike, NSSL Lightning flash initiation in green, and positive (orange) and negative (blue) flash channels. Notice new cell forming to the left of the main cell, and a new updraft forming behind the main updraft

Virtual Reality Hurricane approaching New Orleans, GFDL model results Created for Cable 2002 telecommunications conference, which was held in New Orleans Outreach

Virtual Reality Realtime El Nino demonstrations Demonstrations for President Bush, February 2002, Silver Spring, MD Outreach

Virtual Reality Hurricane Olivia, AOML aircraft radar data Reflectivity from aircraft radar flown through hurricane Olivia 30 dbz reflectivity isosurface, colored by wind speed. Wind vectors are in blue, and a purple contour slice of vertical velocity is shown

Virtual Reality Indonesian through flow, University of Washington model results

Co-processing Viewing the model results while the model is running “Real-time monitoring …on the course of the simulation … can enable the visualization of very large data sets. Indeed, for large-data problems, co-processing might be the only practical way to visually analyze the data, since post-processing of such large data sets is, at best, a daunting task.”* *Trends in Graphics and Visualization, DoD HPC Modernization Program, January

Computational Steering Adjust parameters while the model is running “The most exciting potential of visualization tools is … the ability to test and develop code interactively. The scientist should be able to spot visual anomalies while computing and immediately steer, or modify the calculations, to test new theories. … successful interactive computing can dramatically increase the pace of scientific or engineering progress.” * * Visualization in Scientific Computing, a report prepared for the National Science Foundation, 1987.

Collaboratories Information Technology for Climate Research “The fusion of computers and electronic communications has the potential to dramatically enhance the output and productivity of U. S. researchers. A major step toward realizing that potential can come from combining the interests of the scientific community at large with those of the computer science and engineering community to create integrated, tool-oriented computing and communication systems to support scientific collaboration.”* * National Collaboratories - Applying Information Technology for Scientific Research, Committee on a National Collaboratory, National Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington, D. C., 1993.

More Information NOAA Magazine article about ImmersaDesk htm htm NOAA ImmersaDesk Road Tour PMEL Virtual Reality web page Low cost, desktop 3D visualization/Virtual Reality This presentation