Geoinformatics 2008—Data to Knowledge 13 (for example, connect the roof of a geological layer with trial data. Wherever three-dimensional (3D) datasets need to those of an included cavity). be processed in material sciences, geosciences, or engineering applications, Avizo offers abundant state-of-the-art features 2. If a lattice unit intersects another lattice unit, we assume within an intuitive workflow and an easy-to-use graphical user that these lattice units are adjacent. This principle is for- interface. malized with proximity spaces (Naimpally and Warrack, 1970). This mathematical theory constitutes, in topology, an axiomatization of notions of “nearness”). Avizo XGreen Package—3D Visualization With the help of lattice units, two graphs are computed. Framework for Climatology Data The first one is an incidence graph, which describes relation- In these times, when climatology data have become more ships between objects and makes it possible to establish the and more complex with respect to size, resolution, and the interrelationship between them. The second one, a temporal numbers of chronological increments, the German Climate graph, represents, for one object, the evolution of its relation- Computing Center in Hamburg has chosen Mercury Com- ship with its own environment. puter Systems to develop a software extension called XGreen, This model has been used and validated in different appli- which is based on their visualization framework Avizo (for- cations, such as three-dimensional building simplification (Pou- merly known as “amira”). peau and Ruas, 2007), and in a context of a coal basin affected XGreen provides domain-specific enhancements for by anthropic subsidence due to extraction (Gueguen, 2007). Avizo, such as the following: • Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) CF-1.0 References Cited Reader— Coors, V., 2003, 3D GIS in networking environments, in • Support for regular, rectilinear, rotated, and curvilin- Environments and Urban Systems: Amsterdam, The Nether- ear grids. lands, Elsevier, p. 345–357. • Support for large data. Gueguen, Y., 2007, Etude des mouvements de surface en envi- ronnement minier à partir d’interférométrie radar et identifi- • Streaming of time-dependent data. cation des origines des déformations—L’exemple du bassin • Use of main memory for caching NetCDF data. Nord/Pas-de-Calais: Marne-la-Vallée, France, University of Paris, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 209 p. • Geographical projections— Naimpally, S.A., and Warrack, B.D., 1970, Proximity spaces: • Cylindrical, equidistant, spherical, Mollweide, and Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical Phys- many other projections. ics 59, 128 p. • Earth module— Poupeau, B., and Ruas, A., 2007, A crystallographic approach • High-level textures, three levels of detail. to simplify 3D building, in Reports of participants, Twenty- third International Cartographic Association Conference, • Scalable elevation and bathymetry. August 4–10, 2007, Moscow, Russia: Moscow, Russia, Federal Geodetic and Cartographic Service, 1 CD-ROM. • Continental outlines and country borders. Zlatanova, S., 2000, 3D GIS for urban development: • Fast hardware-based bump shading for multiple scalar Enschede, The Netherlands, International Institute for Geo- quantities on two-dimensional (2D) slices. Information Science and Earth Observation, unpublished • Particle advection and trajectories. Ph.D. dissertation, 222 p. and appendix. • Volume rendering for rectilinear grids. Avizo—Three-Dimensional Visualization • Several other unique interactive visualization tech- Framework niques. By Peter Westenberger1 Avizo Earth Edition—3D Visualization Framework 1Visualization Sciences Group, Mercury Computer Systems, Dusseldorf, for Geoscience Data Germany. Avizo Earth Edition is the software suite that includes Avizo software is a powerful, multifaceted tool for visual- Avizo and all its extensions for interactive exploration, visu- izing, manipulating, and understanding scientific and indus- alization, analysis, comparison, and presentation of geoscience 14 Geoinformatics 2008—Data to Knowledge • Readers for horizons, fault sticks, and fault surfaces. • Advanced seismic visualization by interactive inves- tigation using inline, crossline, time slices, oblique slices, and fence slices (random slices); uses slice animation to identify hidden features. • Interactive region of interest, with progressive image quality during 3D navigation. • Embossing to enhance feature identification (fig. 1). • Advanced colormap editor to interactively change colormap transparency curve “on the fly;” several ready-to-use colormaps for instantaneous attributes, velocity, and other geoscience data. • Horizon visualization and quality control using time- depth colormap. Figure 1. A visualization of 1 time step out of 1,440 in an ocean • “GeoBody” segmentation through Avizo’s advanced model simulation. The colors represent the temperature near segmentation editor. the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, with blue being the coolest and red being the warmest. The embossing illustrates the • Data query from seismic volumes using PointProbe, current’s velocity. Data courtesy of the Max Planck Institute LineProbe, and SplineProbe for Meteorology and the German Climate Research Center in Hamburg, Germany. • Multidiscipline, multiviewer project review—Visualize seismic volumes, wells, horizons, faults, and reservoirs in a single 3D environment, and manage exploration using a dedicated “project tree” view. data. This 3D visualization framework is an ideal tool, allow- ing the user to import, manage, interact with, and visualize • Professional project presentations using a large set geoscience data from multiple sources within a single environ- of tools, including DemoMaker, CameraPath, Movi- ment. eMaker, 3D Annotation, virtual trackball, and high- Avizo Earth Edition includes the whole Avizo feature set resolution snapshots, and more. plus an advanced SEG-Y (file format used by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists) data importer, and the XLVolume • Project review in immersive theaters is also possible Pack, which manages and visualizes very large amounts of using the Avizo XScreen extension which provides volume data, up to terabytes. scalability on clusters and virtual reality systems. Avizo Earth Edition addresses several geosciences needs with the following features: • Quality control of 3D seismic data. Tunisian Structural Extrusion Revealed by • Multidiscipline project review. Numerical Geomorphometry • Final project presentation. By Benoit Deffontaines,1 Tarek Slama, Jr.,2 Noamen Rebai,2 and Mohamed Moncef Turki2 • Core sample analysis. 1 • Rapid application development Earth Materials and Engineering Geology Laboratory, University of Paris, Marne-la-Vallée, France. The Earth Edition delivers advanced technologies and extensions suitable for efficient, multi-data visualization of 2Department of Geology, University of Sciences of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia. large quantities of geosciences data by means of the following features: Neotectonics may be revealed by detailed numerical • Ultimate memory management technology to interac-interac- geomorphic analyses of topography. Tunisia is an excel- tively explore out-of-core datasets. lent case example of a country affected by active tectonics; numerous earthquakes have struck the region, and faults, • Versatile data management capabilities through the folds, and associated structural features have been mapped SEG-Y wizard, the OpenSpirit plug-in, and user- by geoscientists. Previous geomorphic studies of the region defined readers. and the development of new indicators in this current study .