2D weather charts have been the norm for many years, yet all weather systems are physically 3D in reality, involving all three coordinates axes: x,y and z (alternatively: latitude, longitude, and vertical, or 3 polar coordinates). If we add the time component 't', then weather systems are actually 4D. Likewise, climate systems are 4D as well, but with a slower evolving time component than that of weather systems. Environmental and ecological sytems are also 4D in character, as in fact are all structures and phenomena which lie within the realm of Earth Science. Beyond the realm of Earth Science however, in such areas as space science and cosmology, it may make sense to talk of 5D, or higher dimensions.
There are many visual display standards currently in use within Earth-based biogeophysical-chemical studies, as well as a number of new visualization methods under development. These developments are summarized below:
Visualisation for scientific communication & storytelling:
Science needs story
Goodbye uncanny valley
Exascale's potential for animation
The emerging genre of data comics
The storytelling mandate of big data
Visualizing physics at the nanoscale
Camera brings unseen world to light
Scientific storytelling using visualization
Storytelling and the software professional
Turning seeing into understanding and making
Improving healthcare with interactive visualization
OpenSpace: Bringing NASA missions to the public
Morrison Planetarium - GPUs and the Story of Life
In pursuit of the perfectly animated cloud of smoke
Why data visualization + storytelling is marketing gold
Disney and the details: 400,000 hairs on a field mouse
Visualizing science: how color determines what we see
Reimagining the scientific visualization interaction paradigm
The case for teaching CG with WebGL: a 25-year perspective
Modernizing 'cranky' rendering code for HPC-based animation
Evaluating accessible graphical interfaces for building story worlds
Putting science first - distinguishing visualizations from pretty pictures
Gleaning insights in large time-varying scientific and engineering data
New software helps researchers visualize science with greater fidelity
Audience-targeted design considerations for effective scientific storytelling
Designers and statisticians disagree on what makes a good information graphic
3D Interdisciplinary Visualization: tools for scientific analysis and communication
The stories we tell about dat: surveying data-driven storytelling using visualisation
Meet Katie Bouman, the sensational scientist who developed the black hole image algorithm
Visualisation for insight, analysis and decision-making:
Seeing things
CGI Moon kit
Visual Insights
See it, touch it, feel it
Industrial visualization
New mathematical tools
JPEG changed our world
Perfecting digital imaging
Breathing life into shapes
Methods of visualizing data
What killed the infographic?
The art of data visualization
Visual analysis best practice
Building the Universe pixel by pixel
Taking graphics cards beyond gaming
CMap tools for organizing knowledgel
Turning data into images to aid insight
Taking 3D visualization to new heights
Making 3-D imaging 1,000 times better
Researchers develop 'visual Turing test'
UpSet: visualization of intersecting sets
Realistic sounds for computer animation
Activity detection in scientific visualization
Challenges in visual analysis of ensembles
A snapshot of current trends in visualization
Snapshots from the edge of big visualization
High-end visualization the Open Source way
Ultra fast high resolution imaging in real time
Visualization - deconstructing the PhD thesis
Natural interaction with visualization systems
Four ways to visualize bi streaming data now
The technological roots of computer graphics
The history of the modern graphics processor
Research challenges for visualization software
CPUs sometimes best for big data visualization
Evaluating the impact of binning 2D scalar fields
What is data visualization and why is it important?
Platform combines visual analytics, vector mapping
A mathemmatical model unlocks the secret of vision
Intel's software defined visualization (SDVis) appliance
Visualizing science: how color determines what we see
Visualization & graphics tutorial by Jean Favre (CSCS)
The top-10 challenges in extreme-scale visual analytics
New modeling approach transforms imaging technologies
The third wave in computer graphics and interactive techniques
Rethinking visual analytics for streaming data applications
MegaMol cross-platform visualisation framework advances
Surprise! Bayesian weighting for de-biasing thematic maps
View-based 3D object retreival: challenges and approaches
Researchers develop new viz tools to explore fusion physics
Interactive online maps make satellite ocean data accessible
Digging deeper, seeing farther: supercomputers alter science
What color is your data? Inside the science of data visualization
Why visualize? Arguments for visual support in decision-making
Practices & technologies in computer game software engineering
Less computing time for sand and other images of granular objects
Virtual finger enables scientists to navigate and analyze 3D images
Researchers make movies of photochemistry in single nanoparticles
Computer graphics is where all the elements of computer meet the user
Supporting communication and coordination in collaborative sensemaking
A transparently scalable visualization architecture for exploring the Universe
The problem of evaluating CPU-GPU systems with 3D visualization applications
Multisensor image fusion in remote sensing: concepts, methods and applications
Review of stereo vision algorithms and their suitability for resource-limited systems
Semantic interaction for visual analytics: toward coupling cognition with computation
Interactive, exascale ready, 3D rendering solutions using software defined visualization
Reducing snapshots to points: a visual analytics approach to dynamic network exploration
Cologorical: creating discriminable and preferable color palettes for information visualization
Importance-driven isosurface decimation for visualization of large simulation data based on Open CL
Multivariate network exploration and presentation: from detail to overview via selections & aggregations
Visualization-by-sketching: an artists's interface for creating multi-variate time-varying data visualizations
Video systems:
The future of holographic video
First 8K video from space - ultra HD
OmniGlobe spherical display system
Analyzing video, the biggest data of them all
A deep-intelligence framework for online video processing
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality. Mixed Reality:
Virtual Reality is here
Defining VR, AR and MR
Being two places at once
Pixel perfect is critical in augmented reality
Software lets smartphones sense touch force
Recent trends in augmented and virtual reality
VR StarCAVE morphs into SunCAVE at UCSD
360-degree virtual-reality cameras for the masses
Japanese engineers develop headset-less VR system
How artists are shaping the future of augmented reality
It's time for a chemistry lesson. Put on your VR goggles
Is 3-D visualization software the future of urban planning?
A new era for web AR with mobile edge compuuting (MEC)
Using VR to increase motivation in poststroke rehabilitation
Augmented reality turns a sandbox into a geoscience lesson
Spatial user interfaces for large-scale projector-based augmented reality
In this immersive 'dataVRse' you can explore big data using your senses
Compresssing VR: fitting large virtual environments into limited physical space
Battery-free, eye-tracking glasses can make AR experience even more realistic
Vortex plans to open 2,500-seat dome mutiplex for headset-free VR experiences
Mixed reality: computer vision killer app will change how we communicate, collaborate
Streaming visualisation:
Streaming mobile image processing
Building 3D streaming applications from the cloud
Visualization beyond the desktop - the next big thing
Shrinking 3D technology for comfortable smart phone viewing
New centimeter-accurate GPS system could transform virtual reaity and mobile devices
Remote visualisation:
Does HPC's future lie in remote visualisation?
Algorithm helps turn smartphones into 3D scanners
Rapidly extract medical insight with remote visualization
Super multi-view 3D display technique for portable devices
Inadequate data visualization leaves patients undereducated
Remote Interactive 3D visualization and the key to HPC cloud acceptance
Screens, displays, cameras, projectors & holography:
No-logram
3D without holograms
Projecting a 3D future
Towards a better screen
Glass has smart potential
3D displays - past and present
Digital globes offer a dynamic vision
Waveguide metamaterial holography
Huge 3D displays without 3D glasses
A photophoretic-trap volumetric display
Scientists develop touchable holograms
Reality chack: an immersive gigapixel display
The Reality Deck: an immersive gigapixel display
New printer creates extremely realistic colorful holograms
Full circle viewing: 360-degree electronic holographic display
Researchers bring eyewear-free 3D capabilities to small screen
New technology enables ultra-fast steering and shaping of light beams
Review of 3D holographic imaging by multiple-viewpoint-based methods
Holography, light-field technology combo could deliver practical 3D displays
NIST's light-sensing camera may help detect extraterrestrial life, dark matter
New technology for dynamic projection mapping with less misalignment and quality degradation
Visual applications:
Flowing Cities
Seabed lithology
GPlates webportal
Infinitaas by Metanoiaa
Perpetual Ocean Video
Observing a volatile Earth
A flight through the Universe
Earth and Mars in virtual reality
New tool to visualize marine life
Visualization of Earth's seasons
Animated GIFs of Earth over time
Ultrascale visualization of climate data
Visualization challenges for radio astronomy
In situ visualization for large-scale combustion
Astrobiology students use art to develop critical thinking skills
New web tools to improve accuracy of global land cover maps
Weather Channel uses animation to show dangers of storm surge
Enhancing the gaming experience using 3D spatial user interface technologies
Thinking out of the flat box: software renders Earth's atmosphere in 3D splendor
After millions of trials, these simulated humans learned to do perfect backflips and cartwheels
Somewhere over the rainbow: how to make effective use of colors in meteorological visualizations
AI and ML in computer graphics:
Application of machine learning to computer graphics
Visualisation pioneers:
Pioneers in modern computer graphics
Visual systems in use:
NASA:
NASA's World Wind
NASA science visualization wall
NASA's Eyes on the Solar System
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio
NASA World Wind Europa Challenge
NASA visualizations hit the Hyperwall
NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio
NASA's iPad app beams science straight to users
NASA's COVE (CEOS - Visualization Environment)
NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC)
JPL:
JPL's Sea Level Viewer
JPL's Climate Time Machine
NOAA:
NOAA's Science on a sphere
NOAA's Environmental Visualization Lab
NCAR:
NCAR's Viz Tools
Google:
Google Earth Builder
Google's Earth Engine
Introducing Google Chart Tools and Google Maps API in data visualization courses
Google Earth as a virtual globe tool for Earth science apps at the global scale: progress & perspectives
Microsoft:
Microsoft Research Virtual 3D Globe
Other visualisation efforts & tools:
WebGL
Mapbox
Geofusion
Zanimation
Magic Leap
BlogMyData
Hans Josling
Debategraph
ClimatePipes
Scale-1 Portal
The Elumenati
OpenGeoPortal
Skybox imaging
Interactive Book
Virtual 3D Globe
Worldviews network
Using ARCgis in 3D
The CAVE CAVE2
Johns Hopkins GAIA
NPP poster collection
World population cube
GPlates plate tectonics
Earth knowledge portal
SIO Visualization Center
Bathymetry data EOMAP
The Australian data cube
Quality positioning services
Miraikan - Tsunagarai project
OpenEarth Framework (OEF)
Dissecting Michael Bay's visual style
Space weather visualization - CCMC
Integrated Hazard Assessment Tool (IHAT)
Scientists go eye-to-eye with research at ESIF
Winners of the visualization contest at PASC14
UN global pulse sustainable development indicator
Graphics processors speed up Twitter visualizations
Hazard vulnerability explorer and data retrieval system
MIT spinout exploits GPU memory for vast visualization
SERVIR: the regional visualization and monitoring system
VuePod: powerful enough for a gamer, made for an engineer
TACC develops visualization software for humanities researchers
The StarCAVE, a third-generation CAVE and virtual reality OptIPortal
ParaView. Remote visualization with ParaView ParaView and AstroViz
Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS)Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS)
Inside Metal: how Apple plans to unlock the secret graphics performance of the A7 chip
Application of 3D WebGIS and real-time technique in earthquake information publishing and visualization
For the purpose of imaging reality as realistic as possible, it is the intention of the ICES Foundation to develop 4D visual output from its Earth Systems modeling & simulation efforts, and to allow the viewer full navigation and exploration freedom within these visualizations, as a tool for improving insight and understanding of the fundamental processes of Nature - as well as for decision support in the case of mitigation planning and disaster risk reduction.