Presentation
Virtual Expedition through the Ice of Greenland's Glaciers
SessionArt of HPC Display
DescriptionThis analysis requires a large amount of raw data: detailed models of the 3D topography of the sea floor, satellite imagery to monitor glacier change over time, and physical samples of the ice and sediment. These datasets need to be mapped to a single consistent geographic framework for comparison. For example, lower resolution (100m) satellite-derived data of the entire glacier research site needed to be superimposed onto the higher resolution (5m) bathymetry ocean bottom multibeam (sonar) ship tracks close to the glacier terminus. Physical samples of ice and sediment will also be collected during the expedition and will need to be represented in this common georeferenced space.
The conglomerate topography/bathymetry of Greenland and glacier terminus endpoints over time were imported into a 3D visualization application (ParaView). The coverage for the high-resolution data is only a fraction of the total area, so care must be taken to represent the data appropriately and color-maps constructed to represent the various categories (ocean, land, ice) represented. The portions of interest are exported for 3D exploration in Unity via the Artifact-Based Rendering (ABR) plugins running in Unity and ParaView. The ABR engine allows for the complex scientific visualizations from ParaView to be piped to the Unity engine in real time and gives the user control over key color and textural representations. The hand-tracking/gestural navigation developed in Unity enables users to easily explore the data and approach areas of scientific interest for closer inspection. Users can export the exploration path as an animation for collaboration.
The conglomerate topography/bathymetry of Greenland and glacier terminus endpoints over time were imported into a 3D visualization application (ParaView). The coverage for the high-resolution data is only a fraction of the total area, so care must be taken to represent the data appropriately and color-maps constructed to represent the various categories (ocean, land, ice) represented. The portions of interest are exported for 3D exploration in Unity via the Artifact-Based Rendering (ABR) plugins running in Unity and ParaView. The ABR engine allows for the complex scientific visualizations from ParaView to be piped to the Unity engine in real time and gives the user control over key color and textural representations. The hand-tracking/gestural navigation developed in Unity enables users to easily explore the data and approach areas of scientific interest for closer inspection. Users can export the exploration path as an animation for collaboration.