Visualization Lab purpose and facilities
The Visualization Lab is a synthesis of people, advanced systems, tools,
and techniques aimed at a simple goal: to advance atmospheric science
by direct application of state-of-the-art visualization. The idea is
to serve as a catalyst in the service of science, bringing useful new
technologies to bear on valid problems, then developing that technology
into user-friendly tools. Scientific relevance is a primary metric
of success. Communication of end results to the scientific community
and general public is a priority.
These goals are targeted with a variety of lab resources, each of which
is presented in brief along with the year's accomplishments.
Mesa Visualization Lab
The
Mesa
Visualization Lab supports research, development,
and production in all areas of atmospheric science visualization and
consists of several components: a visual supercomputer (SGI Onyx),
a digital animation system (SGI Indigo-2) , a visualization server
(SGI Challenge), and office/user/visitor workstations. Focus areas
for the lab include high-performance visualization of large complex
simulation datasets, volume and flow visualization, distributed
visualization, advanced web technologies including VRML, HDTV, and
immersive environments.
During FY97, Mesa Visualization Lab systems were basically held in
maintenance mode, with upgrades limited to storage capacity. At an
age of 4+ years, both the flagship system, an SGI Onyx, and the
digital animation system will be entering into an EOL (End Of Life)
phase during FY98. During FY97 the focus was on advancing projects
as well as possible while preparing plans for upgrading the
facility in FY98.
Foothills Visualization Lab
The
Foothills
Visualization Lab provides a self-service animation
production capability that includes support for MPEG movie creation
and modest exploratory visualization. The FL lab was held in
maintenance mode during the course of FY97 and efforts were made,
unsuccessfully, to gain funding to enhance the lab and collocate
it with HAO's Imaging Lab. Current plans call for the facility to
enter into an EOL phase in FY98.
TAGS video
The Text and Graphics System (TAGS) included a batch video animation
production facility that complemented the interactive services offered
in the visualization labs. TAGS was successfully decommissioned at the
end of FY97, and the video animation services and support were
transitioned to the Foothills Visualization Lab.
Visualization Theater
The mobile arm of the lab, The Visualization Theater (VT), was deployed
with great success at the SC96 in Pittsburgh and the AMS97 conference
in Long Beach. Late in FY97 work began on engineering a next-generation
VT which would be cost-effective, portable, visually excellent, and
conducive to presenting stereo material to large audiences. Procurement
for the new system is slated for early FY98.
Standard Operating Procedures for the lab
During FY97, a set of Standard Operating Procedures was instituted
for the lab. These procedures basically addressed the creation of
a specified set of visualization products. These include a
website, video output, stereo animation, high-resolution
imagery, and lay-accessible text. Our motivation
is to provide a visible and persistent library of visualization
work while at the same time streamlining a mechanism for communicating
and sharing the information with others. This is important from a
practical standpoint as requests for the lab's visual materials,
from both internal and external sources, have grown rapidly.
Science
The first priority of the Visualization Lab is to provide the human and
computational resources necessary for gaining new insight into scientific
research. Over the course of the year, the lab was host to a number of
research projects from across the spectrum of the NCAR programs.
The lab's first major foray into global chemistry centered on a
CCM2 simulation of sulfate-aerosol evolution by Phil Rasch (CGD),
Mary Barth (ACD), and Jeff Kiehl (CGD). Isosurface and
volume-visualizations of sulfate-aerosol levels color-coded by
country of origin were prepared for the year-long sequence.
Results were
encouraging, and tentative plans were made to begin work on a T170
simulation in FY98.
Solar Magnetic Flux Tubes (MFTs), also called "pores," are magnetic
field concentrations near the surface of the sun caused by
surrounding convective motion. The new volsh software was used to
create stereo
volume-visualizations depicting the
formation and collapse of MFTs as prescribed by a simulation conducted
by Peter Fox (HAO).
The lab was involved in quite a number of mesoscale simulations during
the course of the year. A simulation of a squall line with a mesoscale
convective vortex proved to be an excellent testing ground for new flow
visualization techniques. Cloud water, the rain field, the cold pool,
and particle trajectories were combined to generate an excellent and
detailed visual treatment of the
simulation. Investigators included Morris Weisman, Chris Davis,
Bill Skamarock, and Joe Klemp, all of MMM.
Three incarnations of the Clark-Hall model were visualized over the
course of the year. The first of these, an
explosive forest fire, was a
refinement of work begun in FY96 and focused on experiments with
high-density particle trajectories in the fire's flow field.
Shortly after that, a simulation of Tropical Storm Russ over Lantau Island
(site of the new Hong Kong Airport) was visualized with an emphasis
on studying mechanical turbulence and the nature of vortex shedding
relative to topography. Visualizations of the vorticity, enstrophy,
and Bernoulli Energy fields were studied in juxtapostion to the
island's topography.
Late in the year, a large-scale simulation of
Clear Air Turbulence in a Colorado
Windstorm was developed for a particular aircraft flight
incident. At 20-meter resolution and with coverage of a
substantial portion of the Boulder/Denver Front Range area,
this model produced a stunning 60 gigabytes of data for the
innermost domain. This represented the largest dataset encountered
in the lab and required numerous adjustments to tools and systems
to accomodate it. In addition, the complex turbulence patterns and
intervariable relationships were difficult to understand even using
the virtual 3D imaging approach and interactivity. The visual techniques
we employed provided insights into new patterns of turbulence
unattainable via traditional approaches.
On these projects, principal investigator Terry Clark worked with
many collaborators; these included Bill Hall (MMM), Janice Coen
(MMM), Robert Kerr (MMM), and Larry Radke (ATD).
Enabling technologies
Cutting-edge visualization hinges on a diverse and rapidly changing
collection of enabling technologies. Visual computing, parallel
systems, virtual environments, and high-performance networks and I/O
are all important elements of the technology mix that allow us to
forge ahead in exploring science in new and useful ways. Custom
development is also a critical component, and of all of this year's
accomplishments, the successful integration of virtual 3D imaging into
all phases of lab work ranks at the top of our technology achievements.
VIS5D extensions
The VIS5D package has been a mainstay of the lab's tool set for the
last year. During the course of FY97, three major enhancements of
the package were developed locally: comprehensive support for stereo
on the OpenGL platform, support for VRML 2.0 (Virtual Reality Modeling
Language Version 2.0), and support for large-scale flow visualization.
The stereo capability has proved to be invaluable, particularly for
very-high-resolution simulations with intricate patterns and complex
intervariable relationships. The flow visualization feature was used
to excellent effect on a
mesoscale vortex simulation,
and the VRML capabilities will position us very well for FY98 efforts
in the web-visualization realm.
volsh
Another major focus area was that of high-performance volume
visualization. volsh is a locally developed volume
visualization tool based on shear-warp optimization techniques.
Version 1.0 was released to the general public this year and
substantial enhancements to the code were made thereafter. In
particular, support for HP and SGI multiprocessor systems was added,
and we expect interactive rendering rates to be achievable for
128x128x128 volumes in FY98.
dmp
The lab's Digital Movie Player, dmp, provides workstation-based
playback of digital movies, both stereo and mono varieties. Efficiency
and user interface components were upgraded significantly over the year.
Collaboration
The Visualization Lab maintains collaborative relationships with a
number of research entities, universities, and companies. This is
a brief description of each relationship:
- UCAR Outreach and UCAR Government Affairs: Frequent and numerous
collaborative ventures to host broadcast filming and high-profile
visitors.
- MAGIC-2: Joint development and research work with this
DARPA-funded project involves visualizing simulation and terrain
data using high-bandwidth networks.
- SGI - AMS97 exhibit in Long Beach: Sharing of NCAR simulations
and visualizations that were produced on SGI/CRAY systems.
- Sony Corporation: High-performance tape subsystems for digital
stereo movies.
- Hewlett-Packard: Volume visualization on parallel systems.
- University of Rhode Island: Entered into collaborative agreement to
mutually explore research and funding opportunities for the integration
of networked virtual exploratory visualization environments for severe
weather simulations.
- University of Colorado: Joint research and journal paper authoring
on turbulence visualization.
- University of Peking, Severe Storms Research Center: Joint
development of visualization tools.
Lab presentations and events:
- Karl Erb, NSF, advisor to Neal Lane.
- NBC Nightly News interview with Kevin Trenberth.
- BBC Interview with Tom Wigley.
- Presentation to legislative staff of Senator Ben
Nighthorse-Campbell.
- Presentation to legislative staff of Senator Wayne Allard.
Presentations and outreach
- SC96, Pittsburgh: Joint demonstration of the DCSL project with
SDSC.
- SC96, Pittsburgh: The Visualization Theater.
- AMS97, Long Beach: The Visualization Theater.
- AMS97 Electronic Theater: Clark models of forest fire and Tropical
Storm Russ.
- AMS97 Electronic Theater: MM5 simulation of subtropical cyclone.
- IAMAS97, Melbourne, Australia: Deploying Advanced Visualization
Technologies: Three case studies of the Clark Model.
- Joint China/Korea Workshop on Numerical Weather Prediction:
Advanced Visualization Technologies for Numerical Weather Prediction.
| Next page |
Top of this section |
Table of contents |
| NCAR |
UCAR |
NSF |
NCAR FY97 ASR |