3D visualization has been instrumental in providing essential information in the forecast and effects of Hurricane Katrina. Here is a view of the wet and dry parts of New Orleans. All SDSU images credit: John Graham, SDSU Viz Center.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view Hurricanes Katrina and Rita visualization clips by simply clicking the image.

Numerous fields of endeavor, from motion pictures to architecture to medical imaging use 3D visualization. Recently, it has been used both in the forecast of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and after the fact to plot the effects of the storms on the Gulf Coast region. Three-dimensional visualization was instrumental in streamlining collaborative command and control efforts by providing realtime information about the location, path and intensity of the approaching hurricanes and accurate damage assessments after the storms in order to aid in relief efforts.

Baron Advanced Meteorological Systems (BAMS) is a company that offers weather monitoring, display systems and site-specific forecast data to more than 200 television stations across the country. The broadcast of timely, accurate information of major weather events allows members of the public in the affected areas to make informed decisions about their course of action, such as seeking shelter before a storm hits. The company uses Silicon Graphics (SGI) supercomputer technology — SGI Origin 3800, SGI Altix systems and SGI InfiniteStorage solutions — to run its proprietary high-performance atmospheric modeling systems. These systems are used in the detection and communication of weather events, including predicting the paths of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In fact, two days before Katrina made landfall, Baron Services supplied television stations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with technology and personnel to provide continued broadcasting in the areas projected to be the hardest hit by the hurricane. To aid in its round-the-clock weather coverage, CNN was supplied with BAMS VIPIR weather system. In a realtime environment, VIPIR combines photorealistic mapping, 3D graphics and forecasting data.

Visualizations of Hurricanes Rita (left) and Katrina as they make landfall. The data was processed on SGI® Altix® systems. Images courtesy of Barons Advanced Meteorological Services.

Meanwhile, the San Diego State University Visualization Center was active in the Hurricane Katrina disaster response. Dr. Eric Frost, co-director of the Visualization Center, says, “We are honored to be involved in doing this.” At the heart of the Center’s process is the SGI Prism system, which converts data into an easily accessible, open source format that is then stored back onto servers for public access, including use by relief workers and government agencies. The data sets were used for a variety of purposes, including insurance claims, public health issues and toxic substance tracking. They were also used to determine the long-term impact of the storms on the region. Additional processing was accomplished using the GeoMatrix Toolkit from GeoFusion Inc.

High-resolution image files are extremely large. Because of the limited bandwidth available to send these huge data sets, before the use of the SGI Prism to process the imagery, they could not be easily shared. Previously, to get data from the information centers to the people who needed it, the data was printed and then physically hand delivered, but with the development of the SGI Prism, data files can be processed down to a size that can then be served up as images and sent between the information centers and first responders over a simple 2MB Internet Explorer extension. Visualizing many terabytes of geospatial data, the compute power, speed — 200MB a night — and large memory of SGI allowed SDSU researchers to create timely 3D fly-throughs that depicted the scope of the devastation.