Profiler: An Interactive Tool for the Visualization of Data Products From Atmospheric Sounding Instruments
Abstract
The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) are examples of sounding instruments that measure variations in atmospheric temperature and composition with altitude. The data products derived from these measurements represent vertical profiles of the atmosphere, and sequences of such profiles represent cross-sections of the atmosphere. Atmospheric cross-sections are inherently three dimensional and the collection of time-series data adds a fourth dimension to this data space. Conventional image-based analysis tools do not provide access to all four dimensions of this space. We have developed Profiler, a data visualization system that allows users to render cross-sections of temperature or composition interactively, visualize changes in atmospheric properties over time and space, and define regions of interest to request data subsets from an archive. We have used TES data to design and test the system. Profiler consists of a 3D visualization client, based on Google Earth (GE), and a server that provides access to the TES data archive, generates cross sections, together with the KML and Collada code necessary to display the cross sections in GE. The generation of cross sections is dynamic and interactive, as users can specify the altitude, species concentration, or temperature ranges portrayed by the cross-sections and request that new cross-sections be generated and displayed. Communication between the users, GE client, and Profiler Server is enabled through network links, unique to each user session. To begin a Profiler session users select sequences of TES profiles, know as Runs, from the data archive. Profiler extracts the complete set of temperature and composition data from these Runs, interpolates the data on equally-spaced pressure levels, and saves the interpolated data arrays to NetCDF files. Given the altitude, temperature, or composition ranges specified by the user, Profiler subsets the corresponding data arrays and generates color-contoured maps representing the variations in atmospheric temperature or composition sampled by the Run. The maps and attendant KML/Collada code are served to GE for the generation of 3-D cross sections. Users may also save the data subsets to NetCDF files for further analysis outside of the Profiler environment. Profiler will have an immediate impact on the display and analysis of TES data and, with some modification of our data access and pre-processing procedures, our technology could be extended to MLS or AIRS data products. Given appropriate tools to parse and translate KML, Profiler could incorporate other geo- browsers, such as Virtual Earth, World Winds, or ArcGIS Explorer. In principal, the concept of interactive cross-sections can be used to visualize any volumetric data set describing the properties of an atmosphere or ocean.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMIN41A1130R
- Keywords:
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- 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- 0394 Instruments and techniques;
- 0530 Data presentation and visualization