I am briana Sullivan and have been asked by our government partner NOAA

to briefly introduce to you some of the “State-of-the-art” data visualizations created in

our lab at UNH.

We’ve had a great morning hearing about all the data freely available from NOAA.

I would now like to follow it up with examples of visualizing some of that data

Joe talked about the weather data, and we have an application for just that….

WindVis2 a weather visualization package designed to show the latest weather

forecast model data from NOAA NCEP.

It can be used as a tool for individuals to check on the current forecast, or it can be

configured as a public display, which automatically updates forecasts every six hours.

It shows a complete 84-hour forecast in 3-hour time steps.

When we combined nautical charts, bathymetry and tides we came up with the “Tide-

aware” chart….

We have been actively pursuing ways to make readings from tide gauges and

predicted tides and currents easier for a mariner to use.

This “tide-aware” chart show’s how the bathymetry color map is used to illustrate the

tide cycle;

And To determine proper water levels for safe passage…

Green = sufficient

Yellow = marginal

Red = insufficient

Our application GeoNav3D combines the tide-aware chart concept with:

• the ability to make plans

Step 1: layout the desired path

Step 2: annotate and adjust

Step 3: find an appropriate start time with desired water depth

inside corridor -> water levels at ETA

outside corridor -> water levels now

Step 4: execute the plan

The planned path in the image above, (green line with bordering purple lines) displays

the water levels as they are predicted to be at the time of arrival.

Outside the path, water levels are shown at their current values.

Notice that within the corridor, where water levels at the expected time of arrival are

reflected, there is plenty of safe water (blues), even though at the current time the

water depth is marginal (yellow).

Along with tides, currents are very important to navigation.

Being able to quickly/easily see the strength and direction of flow is a major topic of

interest to our lab.

Our lab has followed recommendations from published papers as well as conducted

studies of our own to determine the best way to depict patterns in flow fields.

Such as this representation on the NowCoast website….(that Jessie mentioned

earlier)

This streamline visualization of surface currents is also an example result of the

partnership that NOAA has with UNH

Studies (including our own), have also shown that streamlines are better than gridded

data for visualizing surface current data.

This Streamline Flow interface is a JavaScript application that was created to see the

difference between gridded and streamline renderings as well as help to customize:

1. the appearance of the arrows used (including the shape and color map)

2. the separation of the streamlines

3. the density of the arrows on each streamline.

Animating the flow of surface currents is a technique being researched at the lab that

is designed to help solve the issue of occluding nautical chart data.

Animating flow throughout the water column is something that our Associate

Professor Tom Butkiewicz is researching.

He created Flow Touch 3D which uses:

• stereoscopic rendering, to best reveal and illustrate 3D structures and patterns

• and multi-touch interaction, to allow for natural and efficient navigation and

manipulation within the 3D environment.

I talked earlier about combining different forms of data to create the “Tide-aware”

chart.

Here is another example of multiple datasets being used and an iterative design

process to explore the issues that these kinds of visualization contain.

This is Wave Watch III data from Hurricane Irene.

It is one example of attempting to combine wind data with various forms of wave

information.

Using the same data, now attempting to use a “better” wind barb using arrow heads.

Notice also the representation of the swells and wind waves have changed.

Wave Watch III data is a topic of interest in a Navy project currently underway at the

lab.

The goal is to combine:

• Wind speed/direction, wave heights/direction/period and surface currents into a

mission planning tool to help submariners with their decision making process.

In this program:

• wind wave data is shown as the “white cloud” image on the water.

• the yellow animation shows the wind waves

• the blue animation shows the swell waves.

• A Los Angeles class submarine is drawn to scale inside of it, to get a better feel for

how the waves would be interacting with the vessel.

• There are two triangular regions showing the optimum angle for the ship to be

headed with respect to the direction of the waves.

Before I release you to have lunch, I would like to mention that our research leads to

some wonderful collaborations with government agencies and the private sector. It’s a

pretty painless process to become an Associate of ours. Here are some examples of

what each party might contribute to such an agreement.

Thanks for your time….go eat, then come see me for live demos and more details.