An Intelligent Visualization System for Earth Science Data Analysis

The ability directly to access, analyze, share and visualize Earth science data has become extremely important for monitoring global environment change. The unique characteristics of Earth science information places undue burdens not only on computing systems but also on the scientists themselves, who must make many low-level browsing and visualization decisions in the course of their work. To address this problem, an effort has been taken to develop a visualization management system (VMS) that insulates the data analyst from making these low-level decisions. The VMS is based on an integrated architecture that utilizes both a database and a knowledgebase management system to generate visualizations of Earth science data. The heart of this system is an intelligent visualization subsystem (IVS) that makes use of a knowledge representation system to help construct interactive data visualizations. With the system, end users specify what to visualize while the system determines how the visualization is to be performed. Therefore, end users will be able to concentrate more on analyzing data rather than on the processes of gathering and visualizing it.