AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE: VISUALIZING LARGE-SCALE CLIMATE DATA USING VIRTUAL REALITY AND INFRARED HAND-TRACKING TECHNOLOGY

Gemstone Team DIVARecently, interest in understanding Earth’s climate has risen in light of anthropogenic climate change. However, effective climate data visualization tools for studying climate remain largely outdated.We proposed the use of virtual reality to more effectively visualize climate data, implemented a prototype climate visualization tool using Unreal Engine, and conducted a focus group to gain expert insight and advice for evaluating and improving our visualization tool. Our regional view displayed the temperature of the Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by topographic data in one cohesive visualization, while our global view transformed and displayed climate data on a virtual globe using a perceptually-uniform color texture and incorporated an animated particle field to visualize vectorized data. Finally, we used the Leap Motion Controller to facilitate interaction with the visualizations through hand gestures. Overall, participants found that three-dimensional visualizations were more intuitive than two-dimensional visualizations and suggested areas for further improvement in the future

Thermal and infrared spectroscopic studies of binary MO<SUB>3</SUB>---P<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>5</SUB> and ternary Na<SUB>2</SUB>O---MO<SUB>3</SUB>---P<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>5</SUB> (M = Mo or W) glasses

Thermal and infrared spectroscopic studies have been performed on some sodium modified molybdophosphate and tungstophosphate glasses. Both families of glasses behave similarly with regard to modification by sodium oxide, which leads to the creation of charged structural units such as [MO5/2O]-, [MO4/2O2]2-, [MO4]2- and [POO2/2O]- (M = M or W). Infrared spectra of glasses are found to support the structural model of the glasses proposed earlier from this laboratory

Elastic Properties Of Sodium Borovanadate Glasses

The elastic properties of sodium borovanadate glasses have been studied over a wide range of composition using ultrasonic measurements. It is found that variation of different elastic moduli is very similar in any given series of composition. The bulk and shear moduli show a monotonic variation with the covalent bond energy densities calculated from the proposed structural model for these glasses. The bulk moduli also vary as a negative power function of the mean atomic volume. The Debye temperature varies linearly with the glass transition temperature. The implications of the observed behavior have been discussed

Chemical Basis of the Structural Modification in Sodium Borovanadate Glasses. Thermal and Spectroscopic Studies

Sodium borovanadate glasses have been investigated using infrared spectroscopy (IR) and magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) studies. It is found that modification of borovanadate glass structure leads to the formation of tetrahedral boron and the ratio of tetrahedral $(B_4)$ to trigonal boron $(B_3)$ exhibits a maximum value of unity in these systems. A structural model has been proposed for these glasses keeping in view this observation. The model, which envisages formation of two isomorphous diborovanadate species whose structures are similar to that of diborate units, is able to account for the variation of $B_4/B_3$ ratio over the entire composition range. Variation of the glass transition temperature of these glasses has been investigated using the structural model in conjunction with cluster-tissue model of glass transition. It is emphasized throughout that electronegativities of structural units are of vital importance in understanding local oxide ion reactions which results in structural modification

EXAFS and MAS NMR studies of sodium molybdophosphate and sodium tungstophosphate glasses

he local order around molybdenum and tungsten atoms in various sodium molybdophosphate and sodium tungstophosphate glasses has been investigated using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). Both molybdenum and tungsten atoms are present in six-coordinated environment in these glasses. Magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) of P-31 suggests that metaphosphate or neutral [POO3/2] groups are present in these glasses

Electrical transport studies in alkali borovanadate glasses

The ac conductivity and dielectric behaviors of sodium borovanadate glasses have been studied over wide ranges of composition and frequency. The de activation energies calculated from the complex impedance plots decrease linearly with the Na2O concentration, indicating that ionic conductivity dominates in these glasses. The possible origin of low-temperature departures of conductivity curves (from linearity) of vanadium-rich glasses in log sigma versus 1/T plots is discussed. The ac conductivities have been fitted to the Almond-West type power law expression with use of a single value of s. It is found that in most of the glasses s exhibits a temperature-dependent minimum. The dielectric data are converted into moduli (M*) and are analyzed using the Kohlrausch-William-Watts stretched exponential function, The activation barriers, W, calculated from the temperature-dependent dielectric loss peaks compare well with the activation barriers calculated from the de conductivity plots. The stretching exponent beta is found to be temperature independent and is not likely to be related as in the equation beta = 1 - s, An attempt is made to elucidate the origin of the stretching phenomena. It appears that either a model of the increased contribution of polarization energy (caused by the increased modifier concentration) and hence the increased monopole-induced dipole interactions or a model based on increased intercationic interactions can explain the slowing down of the primitive relaxation in ionically conducting glasses