SF13A-0701 1340h
NASA Planetary Visualization Tool
NASA World Wind allows one to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging the combination of high resolution LandSat imagery and SRTM elevation data to experience Earth in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there. NASA World Wind combines LandSat 7 imagery with Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data, for a dramatic view of the Earth at eye level. Users can literally fly across the world's terrain from any location in any direction. Particular focus was put into the ease of usability so people of all ages can enjoy World Wind. All one needs to control World Wind is a two button mouse. Additional guides and features can be accessed though a simplified menu. Navigation is automated with single clicks of a mouse as well as the ability to type in any location and automatically zoom to it. NASA World Wind was designed to run on recent PC hardware with the same technology used by today's 3D video games. NASA World Wind delivers the NASA Blue Marble, spectacular true-color imagery of the entire Earth at 1-kilometer-per-pixel. Using NASA World Wind, you can continue to zoom past Blue Marble resolution to seamlessly experience the extremely detailed mosaic of LandSat 7 data at an impressive 15-meters-per-pixel resolution. NASA World Wind also delivers other color bands such as the infrared spectrum. The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has produced a set of visually intense animations that demonstrate a variety of subjects such as hurricane dynamics and seasonal changes across the globe. NASA World Wind takes these animations and plays them directly on the world. The NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) produces a set of time relevant planetary imagery that's updated every day. MODIS catalogs fires, floods, dust, smoke, storms and volcanic activity. NASA World Wind produces an easily customized view of this information and marks them directly on the globe. When one of these color coded markers are clicked, it downloads the full image and displays it in the full context of its location on Earth. MODIS images are publication quality material at resolutions up to 250-meters-per-pixel. NASA World Wind provides a full catalog of countries, capitals, counties, cities, towns, and even historical references. The names appear dynamically, increasing in number as the user zooms in. World Wind is capable of browsing through and displaying GLOBE data based on any date one wishes planetary data for. That means one can download today's (or any previous day's) temperature across the world, or rainfall, barometric pressure, cloud cover, or even the GLOBE students' global distribution of collected data. This program is free and available for further development via the NASA Open Source Agreement guidelines.
http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind/
SF13A-0702 1340h
Distributed volume rendering of global models of seismic wave propagation
Modeling the dynamics and structure of the Earth's interior now routinely involves massively distributed computational techniques, which makes it feasible to study time-dependent processes in the 3D Earth. Accurate, high-resolution models require the use of distributed simulations that run on, at least, moderately large PC clusters and produce large amounts of data on the order of terabytes distributed across the cluster. Visualizing such large data sets efficiently necessitates the use of the same type and magnitude of resources employed by the simulation. Generic, distributed volumetric rendering methods that produce high-quality monoscopic and stereoscopic visualizations currently exist, but rely on a different distributed data layout than is produced during simulation. This presents a challenge during the visualization process because an expensive data gather and redistribution stage is required before the distributed volume visualization algorithm can operate. We will compare different general purpose techniques and tools for visualizing volumetric data sets that are widely used in the field of scientific visualization, and propose a new approach that eliminates the data gather and redistribution stage by working directly on the data as distributed by, e.g., a seismic wave propagation simulation.
SF13A-0703 1340h
Visually Integrating Datasets of the Lau Back-arc Basin
The Ridge 2000 (R2K) program aims to better understand the complex linkages existing between the biological and physical processes occurring at oceanic spreading centers. R2K scientists are approaching this challenge by studying several key spreading centers, the East Pacific Rise, the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and the Lau Back-arc Basin, from an in-depth and multidisciplinary perspective. However, to characterize and begin interdisciplinary analyses of these deep-sea locations, numerous disparate datasets must be collected. With data types ranging from microbiological fauna to petrogenic core samples to geophysical mantle dynamics, this variation exposes the need for an accessible, integrated, visual database. In conjunction with the principal investigators of applicable experiments, we are taking the first steps towards constructing such a database for the Lau Basin. Building off an earlier visual integration of seafloor bathymetry and multi-channel seismic sections, we intend to incorporate a range of biological, chemical, geological, and geophysical datasets into an interactive, 3-D visual database, or scene. The scene will be constructed by combining individual visual objects derived from various datasets. By assembling the initial scene in this modular fashion, we hope other R2K scientists will ultimately use the database to choose various sub-datasets of interest and create user-specific scenes. Contending with the range in scales associated with these datasets, from meters to hundreds of kilometers, may present a slight challenge, however, once overcome, the integrated data scene should be beneficial to numerous members of the R2K community.
SF13A-0704 1340h
gLucifer: Next-generation visualization framework
We describe a general visualization framework, gLucifer, which is designed to complement general-purpose geodynamics programming frameworks such as StGermain, Snark, Underworld, and most any grid based computational models. The StGermain, Snark, and Underworld frameworks allow the rapid creation of scientific modeling applications which scale efficiently from small scale models on laptops and desktops to giant models on remote supercomputing or utilizing grid computing resources. gLucifer provides a visual analysis toolkit for multivariate and multi-dimensional data sets generated by the geodynamics frameworks, while simultaneously incorporating geological data. gLucifer provides both interactive and background rendering but concentrates on the latter for efficiently rendering frames of computationally intense, remotely running applications on distributed or clustered computers. gLucifer also provides a programming interface using XML which extends the geodynamics modeling frameworks to allow native visualization of objects such as meshes, particle swarms, embedded surfaces, scalar, vector and tensor fields on meshes and/or particle swarms with operations such as masking/colouring by node/particle or by ranges of values. The realizable goal of such an approach is for multi-dimensional data sets which are streaming out from a simulation to be dynamically probed, diagonosed and visualized using gLucifer during the time calculations are performed. This eliminates the significant time delay one typically experiences between having queued up a simulation to run and the point at which the results are post-processed and available for interpretation. In this way, gLucifer has a further advantage of removing one level of abstraction between the the end user and the simulation. gLucifer achieves all of this using open source, freely available libraries such as openGL, X11, VTK, and libfame (a movie encoder). Movies are now the standard output for such large, computationally intense simulations and we will present some example movies derived from thermal convection in a sphere, thermochemical convection in 3-D cartesian, and 3-D moving-mesh compressible/extensional simulations.
SF13A-0705 1340h
New Software for Long-Term Storage and Analysis of Seismic Wave Data
Large seismic networks generate a substantial quantity of data that must be first archived, and then disseminated, visualized, and analyzed, in real-time, in the office or from afar. To achieve these goals for the Alaska Volcano Observatory we developed two software packages: Winston, a database for storing seismic wave data, and Swarm, an application for analyzing and browsing the data. We also modified an existing package, Valve, an internet web-browser based interface to various data sets developed at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, to communicate with Winston. These programs provide users with the tools necessary to monitor many commonly used geophysical parameters. Winston, Wave Information Storage Network, uses a vendor-neutral SQL database to store seismic wave data. Winston's primary design goal was simple: develop a more robust, scalable, long-term replacement for the Earthworm waveserver. Access to data within the Winston database is through a scalable internet based server application, an Earthworm waveserver emulator, or directly via SQL queries. Some benefits of using an SQL database are easy backups and exports, speed, and reliability. Swarm, Seismic Wave Analysis and Real-time Monitor, is a stand-alone application that was designed to replace the traditional drum helicorder and computer wave viewer with an intuitive and interactive interface for rapidly assessing volcanic hazard, browsing through past data, and analyzing waveforms. Users can easily view waves in traditional analytic ways, such as frequency spectra or spectrograms, and employ standard analytic tools like filtering. Swarm allows efficient dissemination of data and breaks cross-disciplinary barriers by creating an accessible interface to seismic data for non-seismologists. Swarm currently operates with many seismic data sources including Earthworm waveservers and SEED files. Lastly, Swarm can be a valuable education and outreach tool by using its Kiosk Mode: a full-screen mode that displays an interactive real-time helicorder ideal for a visitor center-like environment. All of these packages were developed using open-source and/or free software and are themselves open-source. Only software available on a wide range of architectures and operating systems were used to ensure computer platform independence and portability.
SF13A-0706 1340h
Experiments with Visualization Technology Applied to Global Seabed Database
We have experimented with visualizing the global seafloor data system dbSEABED using the GeoWall visualization technology. dbSEABED is a large, information-rich seafloor database, with over 106 described seafloor sites worldwide. It has been built through combined efforts of universities, agencies, and others. The database focusses on the output of maps, sections and models that visualize the texture, composition and physical properties of the seabed. For some regions there is extensive and detailed sub-bottom information. Since the structure is based on point-site data (maximizes the spatial resolution as component datasets are added), the interpolation of results between the sampled sites is an important issue. We have imported dbSEABED outputs into GeoWall, using a range of applications, with the goals of providing a tool for: (a) inspecting the performance of various mathematical interpolation routines in the process of compiling mappings of US and global seafloor type, and testing their conformance with details of seabed topography; and (b) effective communication of 3D subbottom structure particularly for the sand bodies of the Louisiana shelf, for stratigraphic interpretations and also the planning of sand extraction for the replenishment of barrier systems. The combination of dbSEABED, visualization and the GeoWall brings a powerful combination of data and tools together to closely examine, refine, and analyze large datasets.
http://www.geowall.org
SF13A-0707 1340h
High Resolution Visualizations of Lake Floor Structures in Lake Superior.
High resolution visualizations of acoustic data collected in Lake Superior reveals that the lake floor is not a featureless basin, rather that it possesses fine-scale features. These are the "fingerprints" of processes that have shaped the development of the basin. Some of these are no longer active while others continue today. Some of the most interesting lake floor features observed in Lake Superior are the ring shaped depressions that are widely developed in areas below wave-base, where fine-grained sediments are preserved. These features are typically 100-300m across, 25-50m wide and up to 5m deep. They occur both as interconnected clusters and also as isolated structures. Multibeam imagery reveals that rings are composed of chains of pockmarks. They are believed to be the product of dewatering of the Holocene glacio-lacustrine clays that compose the lake floor. High resolution seismic reflection data, collected with a 28 kHz echosounder, shows evidence of a layer bound system of small extensional faults that is widely developed in the very fine grained glacio-lacustrine clays. They exhibit a polygonal plan form geometry with a large range of strikes and oblique to orthogonal intersection geometries. They have been interpreted to be an immature polygonal fault system. Discrete horizons exhibiting lateral variations in thickness and zones of acoustic blanking are interpreted to be evidence of post-depositional remobilization of the lake floor sediments.
SF13A-0708 1340h
Interactive Modelling of Molecular Structures
The "Nanotech Construction Kit" (NCK) [1] is a new project aimed at improving the understanding of molecular structures at a nanometer-scale level by visualization and interactive manipulation. Our very first prototype is a virtual-reality program allowing the construction of silica and carbon structures from scratch by assembling them one atom at a time. In silica crystals or glasses, the basic building block is an SiO4 unit, with the four oxygen atoms arranged around the central silicon atom in the shape of a regular tetrahedron. Two silicate units can connect to each other by their silicon atoms covalently bonding to one shared oxygen atom. Geometrically, this means that two tetrahedra can link at their vertices. Our program is based on geometric representations and uses simple force fields to simulate the interaction of building blocks, such as forming/breaking of bonds and repulsion. Together with stereoscopic visualization and direct manipulation of building blocks using wands or data gloves, this enables users to create realistic and complex molecular models in short amounts of time. The NCK can either be used as a standalone tool, to analyze or experiment with molecular structures, or it can be used in combination with "traditional" molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In a first step, the NCK can create initial configurations for subsequent MD simulation. In a more evolved setup, the NCK can serve as a visual front-end for an ongoing MD simulation, visualizing changes in simulation state in real time. Additionally, the NCK can be used to change simulation state on-the-fly, to experiment with different simulation conditions, or force certain events, e.g., the forming of a bond, and observe the simulation's reaction. [1] http://graphics.cs.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/NanoTech
SF13A-0709 1340h
Tensor Field Visualization in Geomechanics Applications
Scalar and vector fields, and especially tensor fields like stress and strain tensor fields, play an important role in the study of geophysics, including earthquakes. For example, time-varying tensor data result from modeling the behavior of bending plates. Application areas we focus on are concerned with a better understanding of bending phenomena in rocks, in the Earth's lithosphere, and in subducting slabs. The associated mathematical models and numerical simulations generate stress and strain data that are tensors. Tensors contain so much information and related components in each point that it is not easy to capture and visualize all information. Typically, researchers plot cross-sections or maps of individual components, which do not allow a view of all the information included in models or observational data. Therefore, it is important to provide scientists with an overview of an entire tensor field. We have developed a tensor field visualization method tailored specifically to the class of tensor fields exhibiting properties similar to stress and strain tensors, which are commonly encountered in geophysics/geomechanics. These tensor fields are characterized by the property that they have positive and negative eigenvalues. The sign of the eigenvalues indicates regions of expansion and compression. To understand field behavior visually, it is important to express these features in an intuitive way. Our technique is a global method providing an overview of an entire tensor field by using a continuous representation. The main idea it to represent a tensor field as a ``texture-deforming operator,'' which resembles deforming a piece of fabric to express the characteristic properties of a tensor field. The texture is stretched or compressed and bended according to the physical meaning of the tensor field. Large positive eigenvalues, which indicate tension, are illustrated by a texture with low density or a stretched piece of fabric. For negative eigenvalues, indicating compression, we obtain a dense compressed texture. By animating the various parameters of our technique, the impression of stretching, compressing and bending can be enhanced, or used to represent time-varying data sets. The method is based on two steps: first, we define a positive definite metric with the same topological structure as the tensor field; second, we visualize the resulting metric. Every principal direction is represented using line-integral convolution (LIC). Here, a white-noise texture is blurred according to the tensor field, resulting in a high correlation of pixels along the principal lines, whereas almost no correlation appears in directions perpendicular to these lines. The resulting visualizations are highly effective depictions of the principal direction behavior over the entire field. In each LIC image, the eigenvalues of every eigenvector field are used to define the free parameters of the underlaying noise image (density, spot size) and the convolution (length of a filter kernel). In addition to these three ``structural'' parameters, color intensity can be used to enhance the impression of compression and stretching. We use a continuous color mapping, ranging from red for the smallest negative eigenvalues, white for zero eigenvalues, to green for largest positive eigenvalues. Finally, the resulting LIC images are overlaid to generate the fabric-like texture.
SF13A-0710 1340h
Collaborative Visualization and Analysis of Multi-dimensional, Time-dependent and Distributed Data in the Geosciences Using the Unidata Integrated Data Viewer
Over the last five years, UNIDATA has developed an extensible and flexible software framework for analyzing and visualizing geoscience data and models. The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), initially developed for visualization and analysis of atmospheric data, has broad interdisciplinary application across the geosciences including atmospheric, ocean, and most recently, earth sciences. As part of the NSF-funded GEON Information Technology Research project, UNAVCO has enhanced the IDV to display earthquakes, GPS velocity vectors, and plate boundary strain rates. These and other geophysical parameters can be viewed simultaneously with three-dimensional seismic tomography and mantle geodynamic model results. Disparate data sets of different formats, variables, geographical projections and scales can automatically be displayed in a common projection. The IDV is efficient and fully interactive allowing the user to create and vary 2D and 3D displays with contour plots, vertical and horizontal cross-sections, plan views, 3D isosurfaces, vector plots and streamlines, as well as point data symbols or numeric values. Data probes (values and graphs) can be used to explore the details of the data and models. The IDV is a freely available Java application using Java3D and VisAD and runs on most computers. UNIDATA provides easy-to-follow instructions for download, installation and operation of the IDV. The IDV primarily uses netCDF, a self-describing binary file format, to store multi-dimensional data, related metadata, and source information. The IDV is designed to work with OPeNDAP-equipped data servers that provide real-time observations and numerical models from distributed locations. Users can capture and share screens and animations, or exchange XML "bundles" that contain the state of the visualization and embedded links to remote data files. A real-time collaborative feature allows groups of users to remotely link IDV sessions via the Internet and simultaneously view and control the visualization. A Jython-based formulation facility allows computations on disparate data sets using simple formulas. Although the IDV is an advanced tool for research, its flexible architecture has also been exploited for educational purposes with the Virtual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE) development. The VGEE demonstration added physical concept models to the IDV and curricula for atmospheric science education intended for the high school to graduate student levels.
SF13A-0711 1340h
Serving and Rendering Cluster-Based Ocean Model Output on a Geowall Using the Live Access Server
Scientists at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory are relying more and more on supercomputing platforms for their modeling efforts. Running ocean models on these large cluster machines poses problems in that domain sizes are increasing and tracking how the model dynamics are developing during a run requires high-bandwidth network time. In an effort to streamline this procedure both server and 3-D rending technology are utilized. Intermediate model results saved in netCDF file format can be served remotely to query model progress using the Live Access Server (LAS). In our implementation, a crontab script checks for model results and generates an XML data-file descriptor and adds the data set to the list of those available for LAS to serve up. On top of the default product choices (2-D plots, data listings, etc), the user can also chose one of two 3D file formats: either a VRML or a Vis5D file of the variable of interest. The LAS is built upon the Ferret data analysis package with the ability to re-grid variables defined on curvilinear coordinate grids and to serve up Vis5D files. An alternate back-end, written using the open-source Visualization Toolkit (VTK), can serve a VRML isosurface as well as current vector fields, keeping bandwidth low by utilizing topology-preserving polygon mesh decimation algorithms. Files served through our LAS system can be projected in passive stereo using a Geowall (www.geowall.org) by either Vis5D, or by ImmersaView. While ImmersaView offers the ability to animate through the VRML isosurfaces in collaboration with a remote researcher, Vis5D (an older-technology application) gives the user the ability to explore the data more thoroughly by allowing the scientist to change isosurfaces levels, or to probe the data using contour or vector slices. We will explore the possibility of using LAS as the server for the parallel, composite-rendering application ParaView.
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/~hermann
SF13A-0712 1340h
The SCEC/UseIT Intern Program: Creating Open-Source Visualization Software Using Diverse Resources
The Southern California Earthquake Center undergraduate IT intern program (SCEC UseIT) conducts IT research to benefit collaborative earth science research. Through this program, interns have developed real-time, interactive, 3D visualization software using open-source tools. Dubbed LA3D, a distribution of this software is now in use by the seismic community. LA3D enables the user to interactively view Southern California datasets and models of importance to earthquake scientists, such as faults, earthquakes, fault blocks, digital elevation models, and seismic hazard maps. LA3D is now being extended to support visualizations anywhere on the planet. The new software, called SCEC-VIDEO (Virtual Interactive Display of Earth Objects), makes use of a modular, plugin-based software architecture which supports easy development and integration of new data sets. Currently SCEC-VIDEO is in beta testing, with a full open-source release slated for the future. Both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO were developed using a wide variety of software technologies. These, which included relational databases, web services, software management technologies, and 3-D graphics in Java, were necessary to integrate the heterogeneous array of data sources which comprise our software. Currently the interns are working to integrate new technologies and larger data sets to increase software functionality and value. In addition, both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO allow the user to script and create movies. Thus program interns with computer science backgrounds have been writing software while interns with other interests, such as cinema, geology, and education, have been making movies that have proved of great use in scientific talks, media interviews, and education. Thus, SCEC UseIT incorporates a wide variety of scientific and human resources to create products of value to the scientific and outreach communities. The program plans to continue with its interdisciplinary approach, increasing the relevance of the software and expanding its use in the scientific community.
http://velocity.usc.edu
SF13A-0713 1340h
High resolution visualization of USArray data on a 50 megapixel display using OptIPuter technologies.
A 50 megapixel display wall is under construction at the Cecil H. & Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) for the display of multiple interactive 3D visualizations of various geophysical datasets. This system is designed through collaboration between major NSF funded projects such as OptIPuter and USArray (Earthscope), and will allow researchers to visually analyze data and present results at extremely high resolution. The OptIPuter project (www.optiputer.net) leverages the capabilities of dedicated optical networks that interconnect instruments, processors, computer storage and visualization resources to aid in Earth Sciences research. This system comprises a cluster of seven Apple Power Mac G5 machines and twelve Apple 30" LCD screens (of maximum resolution 2560 x 1600 each) tiled to form a 4x3 array and will be the first Apple-driven tiled display to our knowledge. The Antelope software will be used for seismic data monitoring and archiving along with web-based analytical tools developed at the Array Network Facility (ANF http://anf.ucsd.edu/) at IGPP. OptIPuter software (developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory) such as JuxtaView (an image viewer for interacting with remotely located extremely high resolution 2D images) and Vol-a-Tile (interactive volume rendering software allowing navigation into gigabyte-sized seismic volumes) will also be used. Interactive visualizations created by scientists at IGPP that overlay heterogeneous datasets such as seismic profiles, geology strata, earthquake locations, bathymetry and high resolution satellite imagery and aerial photos, using the Fledermaus software will also be viewed. The configuration of each cluster node is: dual CPU 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB disk space, NVIDIA Ultra 6800 GeForce card, and the nodes are interconnected over gigabit Ethernet. This system will also be part of the OptIPuter infrastructure, with fiber connections to the OptIPuter CAVEwave on the National Lambda Rail. The design of the system is based on the Geowall-2 class of displays (http://www.geowall.org) and the OptIPuter Visualization Cluster at Scripps (http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/optiputer/index.html).
http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu