2.3 Surface temperature and wind speeds

Figure 3: Two sample frames from the animation of the third visualisation, which shows the temperature at ground level and wind velocity throughout the dataset.

[Low altitude winds]

[High altitude winds]

The third visualisation aimed to take a different tack, by examining the wind at higher altitudes. It used the simpler streamlines rather than hedgehogs, as the overall direction of the wind (west to east) is now known and the emphasis is on the strength and shape of the winds at different altitudes, at a single point in time.

The visualisation takes streamlines in successive horizontal slice planes, starting at ground level and working their way up. This gives the viewer the impression of how the winds would vary if, for example, they were observing them⁵ in a airplane which was rising.

The most notable features are that the winds at higher altitudes are stronger and more concentrated, and the jetstream is clearly visible.

The surface temperature is also visualised in the same manner as in previous visualisations. This was done in the hope that some correlation between the high altitude winds and the surface temperature. None appear obvious, but a more trained eye may be able to distinguish some.

In addition, 32 slice planes were taken in the animation, yet the data contains only 16 horizontal slice planes in the direction. 16 slice planes in the animation were not enough to make it smoothly flowing, so to compensate for this the streamlines were interpolated between slice planes using a Runge-Kutta method. This is a good approximation technique and gives a smooth animation.