Plenary 3
Dr. Nicolas Faust
nick.faust@gtri.gatech.edu
404-894-0021 (voice)

Georgia Tech has been involved in the development of Virtual GIS capability since the middle 1990's and has developed tools for data discovery and visualization of extremely large data stores. GIS query and other GIS functions occur within the 3 and 4 D visualization environment. The GTVGIS framework is being integrated with dynamic numerical models such as the Penn State MM5 weather model and various 2 and 3 D plume models for atmospheric dispersion. A joint (Georgia Tech/ University of Oklahoma) NSF funded project for large data visualization has focused on the true 4 dimensional visualization of weather radar data from NEXRAD systems and the application of detection algorithms to the reflectivity and velocity data for multiple radars. This project involves a significant collaboration between the project schools and the National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman Oklahoma. The key is to develop new ways to visualize the raw weather data and to assist in the development of the next generation detection algorithms for severe weather in conjunction with NSSL. New volumetric visualization techniques are being developed in an integrated framework based on the quadtree and octtree structures of GTVGIS. Research is being conducted in the dynamic assimilating of the massive amounts of data available over OpenGIS and ArcIMS interfaces and their insertion into the efficient architectures necessary for real time visualization on personal computers.