MEVA - An Interactive Visualization Application for Validation of Multifaceted Meteorological Data with Multiple 3D Devices

Abstract

BackgroundTo achieve more realistic simulations, meteorologists develop and use models with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. The analyzing, comparing, and visualizing of resulting simulations becomes more and more challenging due to the growing amounts and multifaceted character of the data. Various data sources, numerous variables and multiple simulations lead to a complex database. Although a variety of software exists suited for the visualization of meteorological data, none of them fulfills all of the typical domain-specific requirements: support for quasi-standard data formats and different grid types, standard visualization techniques for scalar and vector data, visualization of the context (e.g., topography) and other static data, support for multiple presentation devices used in modern sciences (e.g., virtual reality), a user-friendly interface, and suitability for cooperative work.Methods and ResultsInstead of attempting to develop yet another new visualization system to fulfill all possible needs in this application domain, our approach is to provide a flexible workflow that combines different existing state-of-the-art visualization software components in order to hide the complexity of 3D data visualization tools from the end user. To complete the workflow and to enable the domain scientists to interactively visualize their data without advanced skills in 3D visualization systems, we developed a lightweight custom visualization application (MEVA - multifaceted environmental data visualization application) that supports the most relevant visualization and interaction techniques and can be easily deployed. Specifically, our workflow combines a variety of different data abstraction methods provided by a state-of-the-art 3D visualization application with the interaction and presentation features of a computer-games engine. Our customized application includes solutions for the analysis of multirun data, specifically with respect to data uncertainty and differences between simulation runs. In an iterative development process, our easy-to-use application was developed in close cooperation with meteorologists and visualization experts. The usability of the application has been validated with user tests. We report on how this application supports the users to prove and disprove existing hypotheses and discover new insights. In addition, the application has been used at public events to communicate research results.

Flow Modeling and Rendering to Support 3D River Shipping Based on Cross-Sectional Observation Data

“…Particle tracking, streamline rendering, and texture mapping are combined to build the hybrid flow environment. Dynamic texture mapping simulates Considering the multi-dimensional visualization models, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) or r 2 are not suitable criteria, so Frame Per Second (FPS) and memory amount are used as the benchmark to evaluate the rendering efficiency quantitatively [39,40]. Table 2 shows the experimental results of the different rendering models and combinations.…”

A game engine based application for visualising and analysing environmental spatiotemporal mobile sensor data in an urban context

“…In the framework of our project, the use of the Game Engine Unity enables us to combine the named methods (VA, 3D, VR) as well as to implement analysis methods and make them available via a graphical user interface (GUI) (Helbig et al, 2015). There is a need to develop effective and tailored tools for the visualisation and analysis of environmental data.…”

Immersive visualization for ecosystem services analysis and trade-offs

“…Other VR systems such as Multifaceted Environmental data Visualization Application (MEVA) have been applied to the analysis of geospatial data [83]. The MEVA system for geospatial visualization was usability tested in a CAVE environment and 88% of the participants suggested that they would use it for data analysis, 94% suggested they would use it for presentation and 81% would use it for exploration [83]. The positive experiences of participants using the MEVA system suggest that VR could also benefit an analysis of ecosystem services.…”

“…A visualization system, MEVA, was developed for simulating meteorological models [83]. MEVA and OpenGEOSys were applied to visualizing the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) [82,83]. Both MEVA and OpenGEOSys utilized ParaView for data visualization.…”

“…MEVA was applied to visual-CHAPTER 2. BACKGROUND izing both 3D scalar data and 3D flow data [83] and both meteorologists and visualization experts were consulted during the development of the software. HurricaneVis was developed for visualizing Hurricanes with volume rendering techniques in a CAVE environment [35].…”