Visualization in the Earth Sciences: A Discussion on Various Visualization Methods using amira

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that an important aspect in Earth Science research is the ability to visualize huge amounts of data resulting from numerical simulations or data acquisition. Whether the data is a simple two-dimensional plot or a three-dimensional multivariate grid, the ability to visualize the data is imperative for researchers to properly demonstrate results. This poster will examine various visualization techniques of the software package, amira® (www.amiravis.com) with respect to three research projects. These projects are: a mantle convection simulation run on the Earth Simulator; a spherical harmonic model computed at the University of Minnesota's Supercomputing Institute; an upper mantle study of earthquake-generated shear waves down to 660 km obtained through computed tomography using seismogram data from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The data resulting from the mantle convection study is in the form of a regular cartesian grid consisting of various field parameters such as temperature, velocity and viscosity. Techniques employed to view these fields include but are not limited to volume rendering, illuminated streamlines and oblique slices. The spherical harmonics model is rendered as a volume and is also explored using an isosurface module. The upper mantle study is visualized using an oblique slice technique and also isosurfaces. An analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of various amira® modules in regard to the above projects will not only result in a better understanding of the data, but will also demonstrate the unique capabilities of the different techniques and how they can be best applied to specific problems in the Earth Sciences.