Abstract
We present an application of uncertainty visualization to air parcel trajectories generated from a global meteorological model. We derive an approximation of advection uncertainty due to interpolation and incorporate this uncertainty into our visualization of trajectories. Our work enables efficient visual pruning of unlikely results, especially in regions of atmospheric shear, potentially reducing erroneous interpretations. Finally, we apply these methods to a real-world meteorological problem to demonstrate its use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bergin MS, Noblet GS, Petrini K, Dhieux JR, Milford JB, Harley RA (1999) Formal uncertainty analysis of a Lagrangian photochemical air pollution model. Environ Sci Technol 33:1116–1126
Berman F, Chien A, Cooper K, Dongarra J, Foster I, Gannon D, Johnsson L, Kennedy K, Kesselman C, Mellor-Crumme J, Reed D, Torczon L, Wolski R (2001) The GrADS project: software support for high-level grid application development. Int J High Perform Comput Appl 15(4):327–344
Chen LWA, Doddridge BG, Dickerson RR, Chow JC, Henry RC (2002) Origins of fine aerosol mass in the Baltimore-Washington corridor: implications from observation, factor analysis, and ensemble air back trajectories. Atmos Environ 36:4541–4554
Darmofal DL, Haimes R (1996) An analysis of 3D particle path integration algorithms. J Comput Phys 123(1):182–195
Draxler RR (1991) The accuracy of trajectories during ANATEX calculated using dynamic model analyses versus rawinsonde observations. J Appl Meteorol 30:1446–1467
Draxler RR, Rolph GD (2003) HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) Model access via NOAA ARL READY Website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/hysplit4.html). NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD
Dunkerton TJ, Montgomery MT, Wang Z (2008) Tropical cyclogenesis in a tropical wave critical layer: easterly waves. Atmos Chem Phys Discuss 8:11149–11292
Johnson CR, Sanderson AR (2003) A next step: visualizing errors and uncertainty. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 23(5):6–10
Kahl JD (1996) On the prediction of trajectory model error. Atmos Environ 30(17):2945–2957
Kahl JD, Samson PJ (1986) Uncertainty in trajectory calculations due to low resolution meteorological data. J Clim Appl Meteorol 25:1816–1831
Karyampudi VM, Carlson TN (1988) Analysis and numerical simulations of the Saharan air layer and its effect on easterly wave disturbances. J Atmos Sci 45:3102–3136
Lopes A, Brodlie K (1998) Accuracy in 3D particle tracing. In: Hege HC, Polthier K (eds) Mathematical visualization: algorithms, applications and numerics. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, pp 329–341
Murray D, Whittaker T, McWhirter J, Wier S (2004) Integrating GIS data with geoscience data in Unidata’s IDV. International conference on interactive information and processing systems for meterology, oceanography, and hyrdology. January 2004
Pang AT, Wittenbrink CM, Lodha SK (1997) Approaches to uncertainty visualization. Vis Comput 13(8):370–390
Scheele MP, Siegmund PC, Velthoven PFJ (1996) Sensitivity of trajectories to data resolution and its dependence on the starting point: in or outside a tropopause fold. Meteorol Appl 3:267–273
Shirayama S (1993) Processing of computed vector fields for visualization. J Comput Phys 106:30–41
Sobel JS, Forsberg AS, Laidlaw DH, Zeleznik RC, Keefe DF, Pivkin I, Karniadakis GE, Richardson P, Swartz S (2004) Particle flurries: synoptic 3D pulsatile flow visualization. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 24(2):76–85
Stohl A, Seibert P (1998) Accuracy of trajectories as determined from the conservation of meteorological tracers. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 124:1465–1484
Stohl A, Wotawa G, Seibert P, Kromp-Kolb H (1995) Interpolation errors in wind fields as a function of spatial and temporal resolution and their impact on different types of kinematic trajectories. J Appl Meteorol 34:2149–2165
Wernli H, Davies HC (1997) A Lagrangian-based analysis of extratropical cyclones. I: The method and some applications. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 123:467–489
Wittenbrink CM, Pang A, Lodha SK (1996) Glyphs for visualizing uncertainty in vector fields. IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph 2(3):266–279
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank E.J. Kalafarski/Brown University for implementation of the Runge-Kutta integration algorithm along with Jim Byrnes and the Software Engineering Division at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for their support of this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Thomas Narock
Appendix: Pseudocode for uncertainty estimation
Appendix: Pseudocode for uncertainty estimation
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boller, R.A., Braun, S.A., Miles, J. et al. Application of uncertainty visualization methods to meteorological trajectories. Earth Sci Inform 3, 119–126 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-010-0052-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-010-0052-5