RedSeaAtlas: A Visual Analytics Tool for Spatio-temporal Multivariate Data of the Red Sea

Abstract

Interactive visualizations play an essential role in supporting the analysis tasks of ocean and atmospheric scientists working on a variety of simulation models and observational datasets. Designing visual analytics systems intended for addressing problems in the ocean and atmospheric domain require careful task analysis of the requirements of domain experts and scientists, and understanding their analysis workflows. This paper explores the design of a visual analytics tool (RedSeaAtlas) based on meetings and interviews with domain experts working on diverse research problems that involve analyzing spatio-temporal multivariate datasets of the Red Sea region, to understand their task requirements. This kind of visual analytics tool has widespread applications in areas, such as navigational guidance of marine vessels, fisheries operations, environmental impact assessments, coastal development, renewable energy, risk management, policy making, etc. We provide expert evaluation of this tool based on different case studies targeting some of these application areas. We also discuss the challenges associated with the use of varying visualization tools in the ocean and atmospheric community, focusing on aspects related to visualization research.