Rimensberger’s visualisations were based on wind, cloud and rain data made freely available to the scientific community as part of the international IEEE Scientific Visualization Contest. The underlying simulation recreates the weather conditions on the evening of 26 April 2013 and was developed as part of a large-scale meteorology research project called HD(CP)², in which more than 100 researchers from 19 institutions participated.
The computer science student combined existing algorithms to visualise cloud formation and air currents, applying recent methods used in the research field of scientific visualisation.
Exploring new possibilities
Rimensberger emphasises that he was less interested in developing viable predictive tools for meteorology than in exploring the possibilities of “representing weather data in a relatively simple, comprehensible way”. The value for science is that the 3D graphics reveal something that is not visible with 2D graphics, and thus provide a better overall picture.
For example, Rimensberger’s visualisations show how clouds form over Germany and change over time, how they are carried upwards by updrafts and then transported by winds in the troposphere more than 10 kilometres above the ground. Cloud zones with an identical water and ice content are shown in different colours.
The computer science student also analysed air currents. The lines represent the paths of air parcels, and their colours indicate how much an air parcel rotates around its own axis. The length of the lines provides information on the distance travelled, and thus visualises the flow velocity. Ascending clouds create turbulences that cause stronger vorticity or changes in trajectory. Both can be read from the path lines.
