Vislab outreach program




		This excerpt from an image of total integrated global water vapor was produced from data generated by the CCSM CAM3 model and shows a well-developed tropical cyclone over the Indian Ocean. Animations produced from images like this are used in presentations and other education and outreach efforts to help foster public awareness and understanding of the atmospheric and related sciences. (See full image.)

Many CISL outreach efforts are conducted through its Visualization Lab, a visual supercomputing facility that supports collaborative technologies, data analysis and visualization, and theater-style presentations in wide-format, high-resolution, stereo 3D. The room comfortably seats 20 to 30 people and is used for general meetings, videoconferences, and many education and outreach efforts. This facility, with five high-resolution projectors and a 24-by-9-foot (8-by-3.5-meter) display, is used as a 3D presentation platform for education and outreach activities and has seen continual and increased usage since its inception six years ago. The room also provides an AccessGrid capability that helps foster geographically distributed research by providing a virtual meeting place to connect NCAR staff with remote collaborators at universities and other research labs.

Visualization Lab outreach efforts dovetail with NCAR strategic priorities that include "Engaging a broader and more diverse community in the atmospheric and geosciences," "Fostering public awareness and understanding of atmospheric and related sciences," and "Providing Robust, Accessible, and Innovative Information Services and Tools." Visually engaging scientific presentations are provided weekly to a wide variety of audiences including K-12 groups, university students, corporate visitors, government representatives, and scientific researchers. Demonstrations of climate change, atmospheric turbulence, ocean simulations, and severe weather are presented in a high-resolution 3D format along with scientific explanations that are tailored to the education level of each audience. The Visualization Lab is frequently used as a backdrop by film crews, who perform on-site interviews with NCAR scientific staff. Media organizations often request digital media and scientific visualizations that are produced in the Visualization Lab for use in film and broadcast productions that potentially reach millions of viewers to help raise public awareness about important and pressing environmental issues.

In FY2007, the Visualization Lab staff continued its successful partnership with the Public Visitor Program and supported approximately 180 presentations, AccessGrid sessions, and general meetings involving over 2,100 participants (a 25% increase from last year). These events included presentations to K-12 audiences, scientific and corporate visitors, and government officials including VIP visitors from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Management and Budget, NOAA, the British Foreign Consulate, and the Chinese Government, to name a few. The CISL Visualization Lab also continued its important role as an outreach liaison with film and television organizations by providing a venue for television interviews with NCAR staff and by developing digital media that was used in productions by the Weather Channel, Seoul Broadcasting System, NBC WeatherPlus, and the Discovery Channel, among others.

In FY2008, the CISL Visualization Lab will continue to collaborate with NCAR scientists to produce new and compelling scientific visualization material that will be used to foster awareness and understanding of the atmospheric and related sciences. It is worth noting that this activity also helps drive our development of new analysis and visualization capabilities. The lab will also continue its productive partnership with the NCAR Public Visitor Program to reach K-12 audiences providing them with engaging, 3D material to help spark their interest in environmental and Earth sciences. We will also continue to liaison with film crews and the media providing them with a venue for scientific interviews as well as digital material from relevant visualization projects that can be used for broadcast and educational purposes. We will continue to provide AccessGrid capabilities with an ongoing emphasis on integrating new technologies and techniques that facilitate enhanced group collaboration. We also intend to investigate new software tools that have the potential to enhance and choreograph presentations and effects for Vislab presentations.

This project is supported by NSF Core funding.