Vive la France
The SSEC Visualization Project
The Visualization Project at the
Space Science and Engineering Center
(SSEC) of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
focuses on making advanced visualization techniques useful
to scientists in their daily work. We accomplish this goal by
making two scientific visualization systems, named Vis5D and VisAD,
freely available over the Internet, and by using these systems as
testbeds for exploring and evaluating new techniques.
VisAD
VisAD
is a Java class library for interactive and collaborative
visualization and analysis of numerical data. It combines a
flexible data model and distributed objects (via Java RMI) to
support sharing of data, visualizations and user interfaces
between different data sources, different computers and different
scientific disciplines.
Click here
to see a screen shot of VisAD.
We'll be teaching about VisAD in Course #35 at Siggraph 98, in
Orlando on Tuesday, 21 July 98.
Vis5D
The
Vis5D
system is very widely used by scientists to visualize the
output of their numerical simulations of the Earth's atmosphere and
oceans. To see images generated by Vis5D, click on:
Vis5d is being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to
visualize air quality models.
Click here
to read about our cooperation with the EPA.
We used Vis5D for experiments with the
BLANCA
Network as part of the Gigabit Testbed Project. We developed an immersive
virtual reality version of Vis5D called Cave5D that runs in the
CAVE and ImmersaDesk.
We used Cave5D to create
The SIGGRAPH 94 Daily Weather Forecast in the
VROOM (virtual reality room) at Siggraph '94, and
Exploring Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Models Using Vis5D and VisAD at
Supercomputing '95 in the
GII Testbed.
This demonstration connected a CAVE in San Diego to an SP-2 data server at
Argonne National Labs via the high-speed I-WAY network. Click
here
to see a Cave5D view of sea surface temperatures and upper air
winds from the global coupled ocean-atmosphere model.
You can now get a
freely available version of Cave5D
from Glen Wheless and Cathy Lascara of Old Dominion University
that includes improvements they made that allow you to easily
apply Cave5D to any Vis5D data set (i.e., any .v5d file).
Serving and Viewing Vis5D Files Via the Web
Scientists are using the World Wide Web to exchange the output of their
models as Vis5D files. Links to Vis5D files are embedded in Web
pages, just as links to GIF files are embedded in Web pages, and
Web browsers invoke Vis5D to view them, just as browsers invoke xv
to view GIF files.
Sites regularly serving model output as Vis5D files via the Web include:
In order to view these model runs, you must install Vis5D and set
up your Web browser (e.g., Netscape or Mosaic) to invoke Vis5D as
an external viewer.
Click here
to find out how to do it, or to find out how to serve your own
model runs via the Web.
Mesa
You may also be interested in
Mesa, which is
available from our ftp server.
Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to that
of OpenGL.* To the extent
that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state machine, it is
being used with authorization from Silicon Graphics, Inc. However, the
author makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible replacement
for OpenGL or associated with Silicon Graphics, Inc. Those who want a
licensed implementaion of OpenGL should contact a licensed vendor. This
software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General
Public License, see the LICENSE file for details.
* OpenGL(R) is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Publications
Here are a few publications of the SSEC Visualization Project:
- Exploring coupled atmosphere-ocean models using Vis5D
W. Hibbard, J. Anderson, I. Foster, B. Paul, R. Jacob, C. Schafer, M. Tyree,
Int. J. of Supercomputer Applications 10, No. 2, 1996,
211-222.
- Virtual Chesapeake Bay: interacting with a coupled physical/biological model
G. H. Wheless, C. M. Lascara, A. Valle-Levinson, D. P. Brutzman, W. Sherman,
W. L. Hibbard, and B. E. Paul,
Computer Graphics and Applications 16, No. 4, 1996, 52-57.
-
Interactive Visualization of Earth and Space Science Computations
W. L. Hibbard, B. E. Paul, D. A. Santek, C. R. Dyer, A. L. Battaiola, and
M-F. Voidrot-Martinez,
Computer 27, No. 7, July 1994, 65-72.
-
A Lattice Model for Data Display
W. L. Hibbard, C. R. Dyer, and B. E. Paul,
Proc. IEEE Visualization '94, 1994, 310-317.
-
Display of Scientific Data Structures for Algorithm Visualization
W. Hibbard, C. R. Dyer, and B. Paul,
Proc. IEEE Visualization '92, 1992, 139-146.
- Interactive Atmospheric Data Access Via High Speed Networks
W. Hibbard, D. Santek, and G. Tripoli,
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 22, 1991, 103-109.
- The VIS-5D System for Easy Interactive Visualization
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Proc. IEEE Visualization '90, 1990, 129-134.
- Visualizing Large Data Sets in the Earth Sciences
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Computer 22, No. 8, August 1989, 53-57.
- Interactivity is the Key
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Proc. Chapel Hill Workshop on Volume Visualization, 1989, 39-43.
- Application of the 4-D McIDAS to a Model Diagnostic Study of the Presidents'
Day Cyclone
W. Hibbard, L. Uccellini, D. Santek, and K. Brill,
Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 70, 1989, 1394-1403.
- 4-D Display of Meteorological Data
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Proc. 1986 Workshop on Interactive 3D Graphics, 1986, 23-36.
- Computer Generated Imagery for 4-D Meteorological Data
W. Hibbard,
Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 67, 1986, 1362-1369.
- 3-D Weather Displays Using McIDAS
W. Hibbard, R. Krauss, and J. Young,
Preprints, Conf. Interactive Information and Processing Systems
for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 1985, 153-156.
- An Efficient Method of Interpolating Observations to Uniformly
Spaced Grids
W. Hibbard, and D. Wiley,
Preprints, Conf. Interactive Information and Processing Systems
for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 1985, 144-147.
Video Publications
And here are a few video publications of the SSEC Visualization Project:
- Verifying a Weather Model Using Satellite Observations
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Siggraph Video Review 114, 1995.
- Computational Steering with VisAD
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Siggraph Video Review 108, 1995.
- Real-time Volume Rendering of Downbursts
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Siggraph Video Review 105, 1994.
- Hurricane Gilbert
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Siggraph Video Review 105, 1994.
- Energy Generation by Controlled Thunderstorm
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Siggraph Video Review 82, 1992.
- Using VIS-AD to visualize a cloud discrimination algorithm
W. Hibbard, and B. Paul,
Video Proceedings of IEEE Visualization '92, 1992.
- El Nino Satellite Observations and Downburst Simulation
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Siggraph Video Review 74, 1991.
- Cold Fronts Moving Across the North Atlantic
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Siggraph Video Review 61, 1990.
- Volume Visualization of Clouds
W. Hibbard,
Siggraph Video Review 44, 1989.
- Interactive Earth Science Visualization
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Siggraph Video Review 43, 1989.
- Visualization of Four-dimensional Meteorological Data
W. Hibbard, D. Santek, and G. Dengel,
Siggraph Video Review 37, 1988.
- Presidents' Day Storm
W. Hibbard, and D. Santek,
Siggraph Video Review 35, 1988.
You can obtain copies of most of these videos from the
Siggraph Video Review.
If you are in Europe
Recently users in Europe have had problems with low bandwidth to North American
ftp servers. The
Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum
has offered to serve as a mirror site for our software. See the
Vis5D homepage
and the
VisAD homepage
for links to their ftp server.
Or, you can click here
to browse their server.
More Information
For more information about the SSEC Visualization Project please contact
Bill Hibbard.
Here's a comprehensive list of
scientific visualization web sites and here's a list of
Earth science web sites.
To find general information on the Web we recommend
Alta Vista and
HotBot, and for
current news we like the
New York Times on the Web.