Description

Visualizations enable us to detect patterns, time-evolving features, and trends in complex data sets, that might not be obvious by looking at the raw data alone. The visual exploration process often requires comparisons between multiple visualizations, either from the same dataset (E.g. comparing different variables) or a different one, to identify relationships and patterns. This visualization process, referred to as comparative visualization, is valuable for analyzing multivariate, multi spectral or multidimensional data. The existing tools that facilitate visual comparisons do this by three means: Juxtaposition (placing visuals side-by-side), Superposition (overlaying visuals) and Explicit Encoding (visualizing a derived quantity corresponding to the relationship being studied). While superposition is ideal for static, geospatial datasets, where spatialization is a key component of the data, the spatio-temporal nature of Earth Science datasets presents a challenge with comparative visualizations because of the difficulty of simultaneously comparing temporal changes. To address this shortcoming, an interactive cross-platform application (Desktops, Kiosks and Web) named Visual Comparator was developed. The application is used to superimpose and compare upto three synchronized, animated visualizations, and a transition between the visualizations is provided through a slider based interface. This form of visualization has the advantage of drawing the viewers’ attention to changes between the datasets, enabling comparisons of scale and reducing the clutter caused by having multiple variables in one visual.

Examples

1. Sun SDO dataset

2. North Pole and South Pole Sea Ice: Modelled and Observed

3. SST and Sea Ice: Modelled and Observed

4. Precipitation and SST: Present and Future (High Resolution)