Cinematic Science Helps Researchers Explore Data From NASA’s CAMP2Ex Field Campaign

Bringing together data from numerous sensor nodes and visualizing it is a critical part of the scientific process. But creating accessible visualizations is not easy, especially when those sensor nodes communicate complex Earth-science data.

Researchers collaborated with programmers and designers from the Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to prototype a new process for communicating data from NASA field expeditions.

The prototype uses a combination of commercially available, open source, and home-grown software to transform raw data from NASA’s recent Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) into a 3D animation and a data dashboard video. These visualizations made it easier for researchers to explore data gathered by all the instrument teams during their time in the Philippines. The final product package included a three-minute video in 3D and a longer data dashboard video depicting 76 different data variables.

The project was supported by the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program in NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO).

See NASA.gov