Scientific Visualization of Magnetic Reconnection Simulation Data by the CAVE Virtual Reality System

Abstract

In this study, scientific visualization by the CAVE virtual reality (VR) system is applied to the analysis of magnetic reconnection simulation data for the first time. The magnetic field streamline, the isosurface of density profile, the contour of temperature profile, the arrow of flow velocity, and other variables are displayed in VR space. The trajectories of particles under the electromagnetic field obtained by simulation are also traced simultaneously. We can clearly see the relationship between complex three-dimensional structures of magnetic fields, distribution of particle temperature, particle trajectories, and other variables in VR space. Magnetic reconnection is widely considered to play an important role in energetically active phenomena in high temperature plasmas. In spite of intensive research, many basic questions about the details of mechanisms of reconnection still remain poorly understood. Ions become unmagnetized and execute a complex thermal motion called meandering in the ion dissipation region. The complex meandering motion leads to the growth of off-diagonal components of the pressure tensor term, which is one of main causes to break ion frozen-in condition in the vicinity of magnetic neutral sheet [1][2][3]. It is important to clarify the relationship between the role of meandering particles and physical quantities such as temperature and magnetic field structure in order to understand the magnetic reconnection phenomenon.In the conventional visualization analysis, we use so called "visualization software" on graphic workstations. Because the complex particle orbits of meandering motion and three-dimensional (3-D) structure of vector fields are shown on a two-dimensional plane through the workstation monitor, it is difficult to grasp the spatial structure of the orbits and 3-D vector fields. In order to understand the role of the complex orbits of meandering particles, it is indispensable to analyze them in 3-D space by scientific visualization technology. We believe that one of the answers is virtual reality (VR).For visualizing reconnection simulation data, a deep immersion into the VR world is needed. One of the most successful immersive VR systems is CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) [4]. The CAVE system can produce three important views: stereo view, immersive view, and interactive view. For scientific VR visualization author's e-mail: ohtani@dss.nifs.ac.jp using the CAVE system, general purpose VR visualization software "VFIVE" has been developed [5][6][7][8]. This software can show vector fields as lines or arrows, and scalar fields as isosurface, contour, and volume rendering. It can also trace particle motion following the flow field of simulation data; however, it cannot deal with particle motion in the electromagnetic field of simulation data. In this study, we improve VFIVE to trace the trajectories of plasma particles in the electromagnetic field obtained in the particle simulation to analyze the reconnection phenomenon in the VR world.The equation of motion for a si...

Virtual reality and the CAVE: Taxonomy, interaction challenges and research directions

“…NICE is a virtual reality system that uses the CAVE to allow children to construct and interact with virtual ecosystems in a way that gives them the ability to create stories according to their interaction experience. The CAVE has also been widely used in scientific and data visualization, for example as described in (Billen et al, 2008;Ohno and Kageyama, 2007;Ohtani and Horiuchi, 2008;Symanzik et al, 1996). In addition, the use of CAVE has been tried for medical applications, e.g., in (Zhang et al, 2003) and (Zhang et al, 2001) a virtual environment was introduced for tensor magnetic resonance imaging.…”

Simulation Science at the National Institute for Fusion Science

“…(9) "Simulation science basis group" aims to develop innovative analysis tools of complex simulation data such as scientific visualization on CompleXcope, and various numerical techniques for utilizing powerful supercomputing resources. The softwares developed for this purpose are the modified VFIVE for the analysis of reconnection simulation data [33], AIScope for the analysis of molecular dynamics simulation data, and the simultaneous visualization tool of simulation and experimental device data based on AVS and Fusion VR [34].…”

Simulation Data Analysis by Virtual Reality System

“…To understand more clearly the relationship between the particle kinetic effect and other physical quantities, we expanded VFIVE for tracing the particle trajectory in VR space [9]. Because structure of particle trajectory is complex in threedimensional space, it is an appropriate approach to investigate it in VR space using CompleXcope.…”

“…Developments of new software such as, VFIVE [2,3], AVS for CAVE, sonification system [4], reactor design aid tool [5] and so on have been performed. By using these new tools, CompleXcope has been made use for scientific investigation such as analysis of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation results for MHD dynamo [6] and spherical tokamak [7], analysis of molecular dynamics simulation results for chemical sputtering of plasma particle on diverter [8], analysis of particle simulation of magnetic reconnection [9] and so on.…”