Intuitive Supercell Visualization Using Virtual Reality

This presentation showcases the capabilities of our innovative Virtual Reality (VR) weather visualization application by visualizing a supercell in high resolution. Virtual reality is a rapidly emerging technology that enables users to completely immerse themselves in simulated environments. Our application visualizes weather datasets in an intuitive manner by overlaying them in three dimensions on a large globe placed in front of the user. To demonstrate this application’s capabilities, we have utilized three-dimensional gridded data from the Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor System (MRMS) to visualize a supercell. This system provides very high-resolution data (0.01° x 0.01° over the continental United States), and we use variables such as precipitation rate and reflectivity at varying altitudes to reconstruct a supercell. The application provides the user with informative diagrams of the supercell as well as cross-section and annotation tools to assist them in examining its unique structure. In addition, we showcase its ability to fetch this data in real-time weather data using various online services provided by NOAA.