Area Preserving Dynamic Geospatial Visualization on Physical Globe.

Abstract

We present a methodology for creating dynamic visualization of geospatial data on physical globe. To achieve this goal, we use a piecewise curved-display and multi-projector setup. The curved-display is a physical representation of the globe and provides closer approximation of the Earth and reduce distortions. In our method, we use a Discrete Grid Global System (DGGS) for discretizing the Earth to hierarchical cells in different resolutions. This DGGS employs an area preserving projection for on the fly integration of geospatial datasets. There is a one-to-one correspondence between pieces of our curved-display and DGGS cells in a specific resolution. We use 3D printing technology for fabricating of each piece of the display. For controlling the projection, we developed software that takes data from DGGS, warp it and then feeds it to the projectors. The fabrication of the cells and the generation of projection feed follow the same structure of DGGS. We demonstrate the flexibility of our construction with several example setups and apply them to visualize multiple datasets, including time-varying geospatial data.