Visualization Of Scalar Fields Research Articles

A Spherical Volume-Rendering Method of Ocean Scalar Data Based on Adaptive Ray Casting

There are some limitations in traditional ocean scalar field visualization methods, such as inaccurate expression and low efficiency in the three-dimensional digital Earth environment. This paper presents a spherical volume-rendering method based on adaptive ray casting to express ocean scalar field. Specifically, the minimum bounding volume based on spherical mosaic is constructed as the proxy geometry, and the depth texture of the seabed terrain is applied to determine the position of sampling points in the spatial interpolation process, which realizes the fusion of ocean scalar field and seabed terrain. Then, we propose an adaptive sampling step algorithm according to the heterogeneous depth distribution and data change rate of the ocean scalar field dataset to improve the efficiency of the ray-casting algorithm. In addition, this paper proposes a nonlinear color-mapping enhancement scheme based on the skewness characteristics of the datasets to optimize the expression effect of volume rendering, and the transparency transfer function is designed to realize volume rendering and local feature structure extraction of ocean scalar field data in the study area.

Merge Tree Geodesics and Barycenters with Path Mappings.

Comparative visualization of scalar fields is often facilitated using similarity measures such as edit distances. In this paper, we describe a novel approach for similarity analysis of scalar fields that combines two recently introduced techniques: Wasserstein geodesics/barycenters as well as path mappings, a branch decomposition-independent edit distance. Effectively, we are able to leverage the reduced susceptibility of path mappings to small perturbations in the data when compared with the original Wasserstein distance. Our approach therefore exhibits superior performance and quality in typical tasks such as ensemble summarization, ensemble clustering, and temporal reduction of time series, while retaining practically feasible runtimes. Beyond studying theoretical properties of our approach and discussing implementation aspects, we describe a number of case studies that provide empirical insights into its utility for comparative visualization, and demonstrate the advantages of our method in both synthetic and real-world scenarios. We supply a C++ implementation that can be used to reproduce our results.

Research on key technologies of 3D visualization of marine environmental field

In view of the slow rendering speed and poor effect of 3D visualization of marine environment field, this paper studies the 3D visualization of vector field and scalar field of marine environment based on particle system, second-order Euler integral algorithm, linear interpolation method and 3D GIS visualization technology. Firstly, the particle motion model is constructed based on the second-order Euler integration algorithm, and the multi-scale transformation model is constructed based on the perspective perception, and the multi-scale visualization model of the vector field of marine environment is established. Secondly, the mesh is generated by bilinear interpolation, and the color mapping model and the hierarchical color setting scalar field visualization model are established. Finally, based on the technology of 3D GIS, the 3D visualization of marine environment field is realized, and the rendering speed and rendering effect are improved, which provides the basis for the efficient utilization of marine environment information.

Fuzzy Contour Trees: Alignment and Joint Layout of Multiple Contour Trees

AbstractWe describe a novel technique for the simultaneous visualization of multiple scalar fields, e.g. representing the members of an ensemble, based on their contour trees. Using tree alignments, a graph‐theoretic concept similar to edit distance mappings, we identify commonalities across multiple contour trees and leverage these to obtain a layout that can represent all trees simultaneously in an easy‐to‐interpret, minimally‐cluttered manner. We describe a heuristic algorithm to compute tree alignments for a given similarity metric, and give an algorithm to compute a joint layout of the resulting aligned contour trees. We apply our approach to the visualization of scalar field ensembles, discuss basic visualization and interaction possibilities, and demonstrate results on several analytic and real‐world examples.

Implementation methods and applications of flow visualization in a watershed simulation platform

Computer-based flow visualization, which is an important approach to examine both the dynamic flow process and to elucidate the laws of fluid movement, can greatly facilitate our understanding of the complicated hydrologic cycle and provide insights into regional water resources management. Nevertheless, at present, few software tools can efficiently perform different flow visualizations for watershed modeling. In this study, a virtual watershed platform was developed and various implementation methods of flow visualization were assessed, such as scalar field visualization, vector field visualization, and visual water effects. In the platform, spatially distributed flow model results and georeferenced datasets are visualized in a virtual 3D environment. End users can conveniently explore modeling results within that environment. Based on analysis of the varying requirements of the flow visualization methods applied to watershed simulation, overheads associated with a user-determined switch between different systems were reduced, and the level of comprehensive information management and analysis of large volumes of watershed data was improved. This study shows that application of the watershed platform can enhance flow visualization in the water resources research community, and makes related water modeling more practical in support of water resources management.

Ambient Volume Illumination

For interactive scalar field visualization, advanced illumination effects such as ambient occlusion or ambient scattering can help perceive the spatial depth and relative size of volumetric features.

Enhanced Visualization and Autonomous Extraction of Poincaré Map Topology

Poincare maps supply vital descriptions of dynamical behavior in spacecraft trajectory analysis, but the puncture plot, the standard display method for maps, typically requires significant external effort to extract topology. This investigation presents adaptations of topology-based methods to compute map structures in multi-body dynamical environments. In particular, a scalar field visualization technique enhances the contrast between quasi-periodic and chaotic regimes. Also, an autonomous method is outlined to extract map topology in the planar circular restricted three-body problem. The resulting topological skeleton supplies a network of design options through the interconnectivity of orbital structures.

Evaluating Isosurfaces with Level‐set‐based Information Maps

AbstractWhile isosurfaces have been widely used for scalar data visualization, it is often difficult to determine if the selected isosurfaces for visualization are sufficient to represent the entire scalar field. In this paper, we present an information‐theoretic approach to evaluate the representativeness of a given isosurface set. Our basic idea is that given two isosurfaces that enclose a subvolume, if the intermediate isosurfaces in the subvolume can be generated by smoothly morphing from one isosurface to the other, no additional isosurfaces are needed since the geometry of the true isosurfaces within the subvolume can be easily inferred. To realize this idea, given a pair of isosurfaces, to determine if such a smooth condition in the enclosed region is satisfied, we use a level‐set approach to generate the intermediate surfaces. On each intermediate surface, we sample the values from the scalar field and exam the distribution. If the entropy of the distribution is low, this intermediate surface is aligned well with a true isosurface in the scalar field. For the intermediate surfaces generated by the level‐set method from the boundary isosurfaces, the distributions of scalar values from the level‐set surfaces form a 2D distribution, called isosurface information map. This information map can be used as an indicator of the representativeness of the boundary isosurfaces for the data in the subregion, allowing a quantitative measurement of information representable by the input isosurfaces. Based on this information‐theoretic approach, this paper presents an isosurface selection algorithm that can automatically select isosurfaces for more effective visualization of scalar fields.

Scalar field visualization via extraction of symmetric structures

Identifying symmetry in scalar fields is a recent area of research in scientific visualization and computer graphics communities. Symmetry detection techniques based on abstract representations of the scalar field use only limited geometric information in their analysis. Hence they may not be suited for applications that study the geometric properties of the regions in the domain. On the other hand, methods that accumulate local evidence of symmetry through a voting procedure have been successfully used for detecting geometric symmetry in shapes. We extend such a technique to scalar fields and use it to detect geometrically symmetric regions in synthetic as well as real-world datasets. Identifying symmetry in the scalar field can significantly improve visualization and interactive exploration of the data. We demonstrate different applications of the symmetry detection method to scientific visualization: query-based exploration of scalar fields, linked selection in symmetric regions for interactive visualization, and classification of geometrically symmetric regions and its application to anomaly detection.