Identification

Title

Visual comparator: An interactive tool for dynamic spatiotemporal comparative visualizations

Abstract

Visualizations enable us to detect patterns, time-evolving features, and trends in complex datasets that might not be obvious by looking at the raw data. The visual exploration process often requires comparisons between multiple visualizations, either from the same dataset or a different one, to identify relationships and patterns. This visualization process, referred to as comparative visualization, is valuable for analyzing multivariate, multispectral, or multidimensional data. The existing tools that facilitate visual comparisons do this by three means: juxtaposition (placing visuals side by side), superposition (overlaying visuals), and explicit encoding (visualizing a derived quantity corresponding to the relationship being studied). While superposition is ideal for static, geospatial datasets, where spatialization is a key component of the data, the spatiotemporal nature of Earth science datasets presents a challenge with comparative visualizations. Visual Comparator is an interactive, cross-platform (desktops, kiosks, and web), open-source application, developed to address this shortcoming. The application is used to superimpose and compare up to three synchronized, animated visualizations, and a transition between the visualizations is provided through a slider-based interface. This form of visualization has the advantage of drawing the viewers' attention to changes between the datasets, enabling comparisons of scale, and reducing the clutter caused by having multiple variables in one visual. This article provides an overview of the project, a brief review of literature pertaining to human perception research and comparative visualizations, and a guide to accessing this application.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7zw1q70

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-10-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact