Program

Monday, June 9th

Session 1: Visualisation in Geoengineering

  • Invited Talk 1: Can better visualisation improve the quality and certainty of applied geoengineering simulations?
    Chris McDermott, University of Edinburgh, GB

    Abstract: Analysis of complex four dimensional multi-parameter “big” data sets requires not just high end parallel computational power but a multi-user friendly interface. Often the number crunching gets the funding, and the visualisation is a second thought. However scientists have been rightly accused of producing user unfriendly interfaces, and even the term “user aggressive” interface has been heard. Beyond the mathematical and computer science implementation of geoengineering problems, the ability to implement and express a conceptual model of the system being simulated with realistic scenarios and the ability to apply and demonstrate the results, uncertainties and risks requires a flexible, straight forward and rapid visualisation tool. The functionality of this tool is a vital part in the implementation of the simulation, particularly as key to the validity of the simulation is the conceptual model. In this talk we will explore several different geo-engineering simulation applications including topics such as geothermal energy simulation, rad-waste engineering barrier systems simulation, geo-reservoir storage (CO2 sequestration & groundwater) simulation. In each case examples of the visualisation requirements of the data will be demonstrated.

Session 2: Decision Support and Geological Data

  • An interactive visualization approach to explore mass variations in the Earth system
    Tobias Rawald, Mike Sips, Ingo Sasgen, Doris Dransch
  • Urban Energy Modeling
    Gunther Weber, Hans Johansen, Daniel Graves, Terry Ligocki
  • WebGL-based Geodata Visualization for Policy Support and Decision Making
    Jonas Lukasczyk, Ariane Middel, Hans Hagen

Tuesday, June 10th

Session 3: Weather Data and Environmental Data

  • Point-based rendering of forest LiDAR
    Lance Simons, Stewart He, Peter Tittmann, Nina Amenta
  • Animation of Clouds Based on the Interpolation of Weather Forecast Data
    Roland Hufnagel, Martin Held
  • Utilizing GeoTemCo for Visualizing Environmental Data
    Stefan Jänicke, Gerik Scheuermann

Session 4: Climate Data

  • Invited Talk 2: Finding answers in climate science simulation data
    Niklas Röber, Michael Böttinger, DKRZ Hamburg, Germany

    Abstract: As climate data sets are getting bigger and bigger, at the same time they are also becoming more dense and complex. This complexity is due to maturing models, which better describe the intricacies of the climate system, as well as through an increase in spatial and temporal resolution. While in some cases, a quick and easy look at the original data provides enough information, other situations require a more complex data analysis using advanced visualization techniques.
    This talk explains the current state of art for the visualization of data used at the German Climate Computing Centre in Hamburg, Germany. Using two example cases, we discuss our close collaboration with climate scientists, provide an insight into our work, and the workflow behind, as well as address the differences in the tools and techniques used. The first example compares several wind simulations of the same domain using a micro-scale climate model. The simulations differ in wind direction and wind speed; contain a scenario case, and a simulation in which the Coriolis force has been deliberately turned off. The second example illustrates visualization issues raised through the introduction of a new simulation model/lattice, and shows how Paraview was able to address some of these problems.
    The talk concludes with an overview of upcoming challenges, and a discussion on how to approach these issues in the near future.