Providing an example, discuss image animation as a form of scientific visualization.

Question

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Answer 1

One of the most powerful and useful forms of scientific visualization is image animation. In many models, time (whether continuous or discrete) is one of the key variables, and we want to observe how the model’s output changes over time. Take, for example, a forest fire model. A given image may present a picture of a fire at one discrete instant in time. That may be of value, but what might be of even greater interest is how the fire moves and disperses as a function of time. Some questions we could answer using this time-varying model are: How long does it take for the hottest areas to dissipate completely? What areas change more rapidly from hot to cool? The model could compute the ozone levels for each day of the year and displays the results graphically, with green and blue representing acceptable ozone levels, for example, and red representing a dangerously low level. Three hundred sixty-five images—one for each day—could be displayed in sequence to produce a "movie" showing how the ozone level changes throughout the year. The amount of output needed to produce these 365 images was probably in the hundreds of millions or billions of data values. If this volume of data were displayed as text, a user would be overwhelmed, and the truly important characteristics of the data would be buried deep within this mass of numbers, much like the proverbial "needle in a haystack." However, using the visualization techniques highlighted in this section—two- and three-dimensional graphics, color, scale, and animation—key features of the data, such as the presence of a significant ozone hole over the Antarctic on day 292, could be quickly and easily located.**