Computer animation of remote sensing-based time series data sets

Abstract

Visualization has always played a major role in the exploitation of remote sensing data sets as well as in the confirmation of scientific hypotheses. With the new techniques available for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) computer animation, the synthesis of different information layers as well as high quality visualizations for the presentation of research tasks and results are becoming increasingly important and popular. The German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is operationally generating remote-sensing-based time series data sets. This data can be used to generate long term, high quality computer animations for analyzing and presenting the information contained in Earth observation data. Due to clouds or to system specification, data gaps occur in satellite derived time series, which preclude the generation of highest quality computer animations. For this reason different interpolation techniques have been developed primarily for atmospheric research, and they now prove to be a valuable tool for interpolation of a wide range of remote sensing data sets to be used for computer animations.