Visualizing Meteorological Features in Immersive, Interactive, and Collaborative Virtual Reality

We live in a three-dimensional world, but we represent almost all of our meteorological data on flat surfaces. Experienced meteorologists can look at horizontal and vertical maps to build a mental rendering of the state of the atmosphere, but meteorology students struggle with that process. Usually, that skill is one of the biggest challenges in meteorology education and takes years to develop. It’s much easier to “see” the atmosphere in 3D if you can learn about it in 3D.

Now, imagine that you could have your students pick up and look at a mid-latitude cyclone represented in full 3D like it had been 3D printed – but with layers and information that could be added or removed on demand. They could grab that model and manipulate it however they would like – viewing it from any angle, pointing to certain features and asking about them. With virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, we have already made this a reality.

This presentation will showcase recent VR and AR developments for meteorology education created at St. Cloud State University. At our demonstration, you will use the latest technology to interact with multiple meteorological features and conceptual models including isentropic surfaces, jet streak circulations, mid-latitude cyclones, and more. We will also show a prototype of our collaborative tools so multiple users can experience the same 3D imagery at the same time.