Principal Researchers: Paula McCaslin / Phil McDonald / Ed Szoke
CIRA staff have supported the development of Display-3D (D3D) that was the focus of an operational exercise by forecast meteorologists during July and August 1998 (RT98). The objectives of the exercise were to evaluate the system in a quasi-operational setting, including determining advantages and defining areas in need of improvement with respect to: the design and usability of the application, how to educate and train users to utilize the application, and the display of data sets that could add value in operational forecasting.
Information gained from RT98 have been used to improve and enhance the graphical user interface, develop more quantitative meteorological product displays and highlight areas to emphasize when training users. A second exercise is planned for 1999 (RT99) to address the use of 3D visualization in operational forecasting and refine the direction of future 3D development.
Vis5D, the core graphics software of D3D, is being developed in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin. General purpose enhancements developed at FSL by CIRA staff are integrated into the standard releases of Vis5D. This process eliminates maintenance of separate versions: ours and theirs. A development effort to allow D3D to be independent of AWIPS hardware and software is beginning. This allows for portability among platforms, including a port of the application to LINUX.
Several D3D presentations, documents and articles were generated this year. The D3D User's Guide was completed (www.fsl.noaa.gov/~osborn/d3d/D3DUG_TC.html), educational talks and papers were presented at the 1999 AMS in Dallas, TX, and 'Evolution of 3-D Visualization Development at FSL' was published in the February 1999 FSL Forum.
Figure 1. WFO-Advanced Display-3D and the D3D Volume Browser (b/w , color). The image shows a 0-h Eta model forecast valid 1200 UTC 2 October 1998, as viewed from the south. Displayed is a 100-kt wind speed isosurface (dark gray), a vertical cross section of wind barbs centered through Denver, a 290-K potential temperature isosurface (white), a 12.0 g/kg specific humidity isosurface (foreground), and a contoured and colored vertical cross section displaying heights.
