Three Dimensional Visualization of GOES Cloud Data Using Octress
Abstract
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imagery is commonly displayed in a two-dimensional format. This is adequate to portray areas as being simply cloudy or clear, but often more information is desired. A three-dimensional display could be helpful in analyzing the information, and could improve understanding of the atmospheric conditions. Many three- dimensional visualization packages model just the smoothed object surfaces. While this may be aesthetically pleasing, it does not effectively represent volumetric data, and the smoothed surfaces may compromise data integrity. This thesis presents octree encoding as a structure that can effectively represent volumetric data with the added benefits of data compression and acceleration of volume rendering. The fundamentals of octree encoding are introduced, along with strengths and weaknesses, and which data sets are better suited to octree compression. To demonstrate the capabilities of octree encoding of cloud data, GOES imagery was gathered over Central America for the month of December 1990, and a program called VOXEL (VOlumetric piXEL) was utilized for octree encoding and three-dimensional visualization. VOXEL displays are shown to illustrate the greater visual impact of three-dimensional vs. two-dimensional data. VOXEL is also used to demonstrate how two. dimensional cloud climatologies are overlaid to create a three-dimensional array, which can then be rotated, sliced, or thresholded as desired.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA268102
Entities
People
- Bruce H. Van Aartsen
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology