As part of a new planetarium show called “Dynamic Earth”, the NCSA working with NCAR to visualize terabytes of data related to the devastating Katrina hurricane. The result is this beautiful, if not a bit scary, visualization of one of the worst hurricanes to land on US shores.
A hurricane research team at the Earth System Laboratory, led by Wei Wang, computed the evolution of the storm using a complex numerical weather prediction model. Running this mathematical model on the Bluefire supercomputer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research yielded terabytes of data, which AVL then transformed into a striking animation of the 36-hour period when the storm is gaining energy over the warm ocean. Volume-rendered clouds show abundant moisture. Trajectories follow moist air rising into intense “hot tower” thunderstorms and trace strong winds around the eye wall; rapidly rising air is yellow, while sinking air is blue. The sun, moon, and stars show the passing of time.
One of the many companies that found themselves cut off from the world after Katrina was popular 3D model warehouse TurboSquid. In an interview with CNN’s Tom Foreman, CEO Matt Wisdom talks about how they turned the disaster into a business opportunity.
Typical of mainstream media, it’s got a few errors: They call TurboSquid a “3d Imaging Company”, and they claim that because of Katrina they “expanded sales into a global market”. TurboSquid has always been an online market, so I don’t think that’s a unique post-Katrina business, but otherwise it’s a great short news story about how they rebuilt the company after the hurricane to become the “largest online vendor in the world of 3d” (CNN’s quote, not mine).
A new RFP from “Invisible Culture” is asking for papers discussing new visualizations of the media and events surrounding the 2005 impact of Hurricane Katrina. They talk alot about podcasts and mass-media, but leave the door open for new information visualizations as wel.
We seek papers that consider visual representations of Hurricane Katrina in a ways unimaginable at earlier points in the intersection between visual studies and cultural studies. From CNN.com’s award winning “Voices from the Gulf Coast” podcasts, to the various discussion blogs that have emerged in the wake of the event, to Google Earth’s satellite imagery overlays of the devastation in the affected region, to the television show “Extreme Makeover: Hurricane Katrina Home Edition,” we have seen in Katrina’s aftermath a plethora of new modes of visual diffusion. Furthermore, the intensification of mass media, both in terms of the sheer quantity of media outlets and in the reach of its dissemination, has given rise to a new experience of historical time and geographic proximity, in which we experience historical events through media representations almost immediately as they happen and regardless of where they occur.
As part of a new planetarium show called “Dynamic Earth”, the NCSA working with NCAR to visualize terabytes of data related to the devastating Katrina hurricane. The result is this beautiful, if not a bit scary, visualization of one of the worst hurricanes to land on US shores.
One of the many companies that found themselves cut off from the world after Katrina was popular 3D model warehouse TurboSquid. In an interview with CNN’s Tom Foreman, CEO Matt Wisdom talks about how they turned the disaster into a business opportunity.
A new RFP from “Invisible Culture” is asking for papers discussing new visualizations of the media and events surrounding the 2005 impact of Hurricane Katrina. They talk alot about podcasts and mass-media, but leave the door open for new information visualizations as wel.
VizWorld.com 
Comments