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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:

Video Publications

And here are a few video publications of the SSEC Visualization Project:

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.