Scientific Visualization Sample Images and Animations

Making of a Giant, Lightweight, Honeycomb Mirror

Melting, molding and spinning of borosilicate glass in Steward Observatory's specially designed rotating oven. The mirror will be used in new generations of optical and infrared telescopes. (Image processing and pseudocoloring by Mark McCaughrean)

Two-Dimensional Model of Electrical Waves in the Heart

Visualizations of reaction-diffusion type equations describing the propagation of electrical activity in the heart. (Research by Marc Courtemanche and Arthur T. Winfree; Visualizations created using custom code and Iris GL)

Moisture Distribution During Purging of a Vertical Thermal Reactor

Animation 1 shows the concentration during the wafer introduction stage. Animation 2 depicts the furnace stabilization stage. (Research by Nishith Verma and Dr. Farhang Shadman; Visualizations created using Spyglass and SGI image tools)

Three-Dimensional Source Distribution

The plot is of a three dimensional source distribution for a supersonic passenger airliner. Also seen is the N-wave created on the ground from the distribution. Note: the height scale is set only for the N-wave. (Research by Gene Bergmeier and Steve Crow; Visualization created using IBM Data Explorer)

Volume Renderings of Confocal Microscope Data

Several types of volume rendering techniques used on data collected from the Department of Neurobiology's Biorad confocal microscope. (Visualizations created using IBM Data Explorer)

Flyby of Digital Elevation Map, Phantom Ranch, Arizona

Fly through a computer generated landscape. The Phantom Ranch area is very popular with hikers in the Grand Canyon. (Animation by Marvin Landis; Visualization created with USGS DEM data and VistaPro 2.0)

Hurricane Andrew

Time lapse animation of hurricane Andrew as it travels across Florida. Pseudocoloring is used to show rainfall amounts. (Animation by Marvin Landis)

The 3D Brain; Hippocampus

An educational animation which demonstrates why the highlighted area of the brain in this video is called the Hippocampus. The Greek meaning of hippo is "horse" and campos is "sea animal". Hopefully after viewing this animation, the reason for its name will be obvious.

Flyby of Catalina Mountains, Tucson, Arizona

This is a morning drive along the location of Sunrise/Skyline Drives. This is an initial test of a new volumetric clouds and lighting algorithm. The landscape is created with 10 meter USGS SDTS data. Work is being done on making this into a real-time, interactive virtual reality environment.