Immersive multi-scale visualization of downscaling climate models

Model-based downscaling of global climate change to the regional level typically involves the use of spatially nested models, from a relatively coarse global simulation to fine spatial and temporal resolution in the region of interest. Interpretation of this output is facilitated by a simultaneous examination of both large and small scale phenomena. Increasingly the output from such models (and data) can be retrieved online, e.g. through Live Access Server technology. Such technologies allow the simultaneous display of output from multiple sources (e.g. multiple models from a nested set) within a single geospatial viewer such as Google Earth. This geospatial software has the attractive ability to navigate from a large-to-fine-scale view of the globe, and to interactively re-render scenes using model output (or data) most appropriate to the user's view. Here, a portable stereo-immersive rendering of Google Earth on a “Geowall” will be described. This has been used to examine the 3-D structure of output from an online set of downscaling physical and biological models of circulation and biology in the Northeast Pacific and the Bering Sea.