Web-Scale Multidimensional Visualization of Big Spatial Data to Support Earth Sciences—A Case Study with Visualizing Climate Simulation Data
Journal Title: Informatics - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 3
Abstract
The world is undergoing rapid changes in its climate, environment, and ecosystems due to increasing population growth, urbanization, and industrialization. Numerical simulation is becoming an important vehicle to enhance the understanding of these changes and their impacts, with regional and global simulation models producing vast amounts of data. Comprehending these multidimensional data and fostering collaborative scientific discovery requires the development of new visualization techniques. In this paper, we present a cyberinfrastructure solution—PolarGlobe—that enables comprehensive analysis and collaboration. PolarGlobe is implemented upon an emerging web graphics library, WebGL, and an open source virtual globe system Cesium, which has the ability to map spatial data onto a virtual Earth. We have also integrated volume rendering techniques, value and spatial filters, and vertical profile visualization to improve rendered images and support a comprehensive exploration of multi-dimensional spatial data. In this study, the climate simulation dataset produced by the extended polar version of the well-known Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) is used to test the proposed techniques. PolarGlobe is also easily extendable to enable data visualization for other Earth Science domains, such as oceanography, weather, or geology.
Authors and Affiliations
Sizhe Wang, Wenwen Li and Feng Wang
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP44100
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics4030017
- Views 263
- Downloads 0
Developing and Improving Student Non-Technical Skills in IT Education: A Literature Review and Model
The purpose of this paper is to identify portions of the literature in the areas of Information Technology (IT) management, skills development, and curriculum development that support the design of a holistic conceptua...
Reinforcement Learning for Predictive Analytics in Smart Cities
The digitization of our lives cause a shift in the data production as well as in the required data management. Numerous nodes are capable of producing huge volumes of data in our everyday activities. Sensors, personal...
Artificial Neural Networks and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms for Preference Prediction in Multi-Criteria Recommender Systems
Recommender systems are powerful online tools that help to overcome problems of information overload. They make personalized recommendations to online users using various data mining and filtering techniques. However,...
Designing a Situational Awareness Information Display: Adopting an Affordance-Based Framework to Amplify User Experience in Environmental Interaction Design
User experience remains a crucial consideration when assessing the successfulness of information visualization systems. The theory of affordances provides a robust framework for user experience design. In this article,...
Frame-Based Elicitation of Mid-Air Gestures for a Smart Home Device Ecosystem
If mid-air interaction is to be implemented in smart home environments, then the user would have to exercise in-air gestures to address and manipulate multiple devices. This paper investigates a user-defined gesture vo...