Improving Hurricane Visualization

Forecasting hurricane tracks and intensities is subject to a vast range of uncertainties and variables. Much of the uncertainty is attributed to the numerical methods used to represent the governing equations, the schemes used to implement the most accurate initial conditions, and the resolution of (true) boundary conditions. Recently, the tropical cyclones seasons for the Atlantic/Caribbean basin have been very active with both record number of events and record intensities. As a result, it becomes imperative that efforts are made to improve the forecasting of tracks and intensities. Together with researchers from the Department of Meteorology, we are converting real-time tropical cyclone simulation data to a visual representation using the Amira visualization software. The entire process takes data from the simulation, post processes it, and produces images and animations that get displayed for interactive viewing by the public at large. We are also developing techniques to compute the steering flow, i.e., a large scale version of the hurricane flow field, which is meant to simplify the path tracking procedure.