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Environmental Earth Sciences manuscript No.

(will be inserted by the editor)

TESSIN VISLab – Laboratory for Scientific Visualization


Lars Bilke · Thomas Fischer · Carolin Helbig · Charlotte Krawczyk ·
Thomas Nagel · Dmitri Naumov · Sebastian Paulick · Karsten Rink ·
Agnes Sachse · Sophie Schelenz · Marc Walther · Norihiro Watanabe ·
Björn Zehner · Jennifer Ziesch · Olaf Kolditz

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5

Abstract Scientific visualization is an integral part of A high-resolution stereoscopic virtual reality (VR) envi-
the modeling workflow, enabling researchers to under- ronment further enhances the possibilities of visualiza-
stand complex or large data sets and simulation results. tion. Such an environment also allows collaboration in
work groups including people of different backgrounds
L. Bilke · T. Fischer · C. Helbig · O. Kolditz · T. Nagel · K. and to present results of research projects to stakehold-
Rink · N. Watanabe
Department of Environmental Informatics,
ers or the public. The requirements for the computing
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, equipment driving the VR environment demand spe-
Leipzig, Germany, cialized software applications which can be run in a par-
E-mail: lars.bilke@ufz.de allel fashion on a set of interconnected machines. An-
A. Sachse other challenge is to devise a useful data workflow from
Department of Catchment Hydrology, source data sets onto the display system. Therefore we
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research,
Leipzig, Germany
develop software applications like the OpenGeoSys Data
Explorer, custom data conversion tools for established
S. Schelenz
Department of Monitoring and Exploration Technologies,
visualization packages such as ParaView and VTK as
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, well as presentation and interaction techniques for 3D
Leipzig, Germany applications like Unity. We demonstrate our workflow
S. Paulick by presenting visualization results for case studies from
Department of Ecologial Modelling, a broad range of applications. An outlook on how visu-
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, alization techniques can be deeply integrated into the
Leipzig, Germany
simulation process is given and future technical im-
O. Kolditz provements such as a simplified hardware setup are out-
Chair of Applied Environmental System Analysis,
Technische University at Dresden,
lined.
Dresden, Germany Keywords Virtual Reality · Visualization · Computer
M. Walther Graphics · Data Exploration · Hydrological Processes ·
Institute for Groundwater Management, Geotechnics · Seismic Data · OpenGeoSys · VISLAB
Technische University at Dresden,
Dresden, Germany
D. Naumov 1 Introduction
Faculty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering,
Leipzig University of Applied Sciences,
Leipzig, Germany Visualization is an indispensable tool – not only in
B. Zehner
environmental sciences – to create insight from data
Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, originating from constantly evolving complex numeri-
Berlin, Germany cal models describing natural phenomena. Proper tools
J. Ziesch · C. Krawczyk and workflows are needed to handle these data in a
Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, practical way to let researchers benefit from the ad-
Hannover, Germany vantages of visualization. Due to the variety of appli-
cation domains, this is a challenging field [12]. We de- stereo using shutter glasses [42] and passive stereo us-
velop software applications like the OpenGeoSys Data ing Infitec technology [29]. An optical motion track-
Explorer, custom data conversion tools for established ing system [17] based on infrared cameras detecting
visualization packages such as ParaView and VTK as passive markers on the user’s 3D glasses allows com-
well as presentation and interaction techniques for 3D putation of images such that a correct perspective is
application frameworks like Unity, enabling scientists in maintained and adjustments are made according to the
environmental research to better explore, analyze and movement of the observer. Additionally, a pointer de-
present their scientific problems and questions. vice (Flystick ) allows for interaction with the virtual
The term VISLab or Visualization Center is often environment. The rendering is performed using a clus-
used in research to describe a facility with a focus on in- ter of 13 workstations (one for each projector) equipped
terdisciplinary research with the help of visual methods with high-end Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs)
and emerging technologies such as large screen instal- and situated in a server room next to the presentation
lations [31], virtual reality techniques [10, 11] or novel venue. The master / server process of the actual appli-
collaboration tools [28]. Such facilities can be found cation is started on a hardware device in front of the
in research [75], engineering [15], training [64] and display that allows controlling of multiple machines in
medicine [81]. the server room from one keyboard, mouse and monitor
(KVM switch). Figure 1 shows that in addition to the
virtual reality capabilities, the VISLab can be employed
2 TESSIN VISLab for enhanced multimedia presentations such as the si-
multaneous display of images, videos and documents or
The TESSIN VISLab is a high-resolution immersive a combination of 2D and 3D content. A typical use is to
virtual reality (VR) environment and was established present the 3D data on the main screen and additional
at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research data sets such as images, spreadsheets, maps and videos
(UFZ) in 2008 to face the need of analyzing and working in a context-dependent way on the two side screens as
on increasingly complex data sets generated by simula- shown in figure 1.
tions of natural phenomena in environmental sciences.
Typical uses for this environment are:
2.2 Mobile VR equipment
– collaborative discussions in small groups of scien-
tists For off-site presentations such as at conferences, work-
– exploring complex data sets shops or visits to project partners or stakeholders, we
– verifying the quality of data sets can also utilize mobile equipment to demonstrate the
– showing concurrent visualizations of heterogeneous same visualization projects as in the VISLab (although
integrated data sets in a much smaller resolution and also limited to one
– presenting research results to stakeholders concurrent user). The equipment consists of notebooks
– presentations for the general public such as on open with dedicated GPUs and stereoscopic projectors or
house events head-mounted displays such as the Oculus Rift [50] as
shown in figure 2.

2.1 Technical overview

The hardware setup of the TESSIN VISLab uses a back


projection-based stereoscopic visualization environment
with an approximately 6 by 3 meter large main screen
and extending projections on the floor and two side
wings. In order to achieve a high resolution of approxi-
mately 6400 by 1900 pixel on the main and side screens
and 3600 by 1050 pixel on the floor screen (resulting in
over 10 megapixel), 13 projectors are used. Images are
generated alternating for the left and the right eye and
users wear special glasses which separate these images,
Fig. 2 Mobile presentation with help of a head-mounted dis-
resulting in a stereoscopic view. For the stereo separa- play and a game console like input controller at a scientific
tion, we can switch between two technologies – active conference.

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


Fig. 1 Mixed 2D / 3D visualization of observed rain events on the Arabian Peninsula [58]. In addition to the stereoscopic
image on the main screen, stratigraphies from interactively selectable borehole data (on the left) and an overview map (on the
right), indicating the current observer position, are shown [86].

2.3 Software are there many interaction possibilities besides viewer


movement and object selection. It has a plug-in inter-
Because of the clustered setup, we can only use software face but no documentation is available from the vendor
which can run in parallel and synchronizes the current on how to address it. An advantage of the software is
state across all involved machines. There is specialized that VRED’s editor can be directly connected to the
software with integrated cluster rendering capabilities VISLab’s display so that local changes to the scene done
and middleware software which adds this functionality at the presentation terminal are visible immediately on
on top of non-clustered applications. This middleware, the video wall.
such as Techviz [70] or Conduit [44], intercepts graphic
commands from a desktop application and redistribute ParaView is an open-source data analysis and visual-
them to a render cluster. It allow to run a regular 3D ization software [26] by Kitware Inc. build on top of the
desktop application in a VR environment with stere- Visualization Toolkit [62] (VTK ). Both technologies are
oscopy and tracking enabled. Data conversion is not also integrated in our visualization workflows (see 2.4).
necessary for this setup but interaction and presenta- ParaView allows the quick creation of visualizations
tion techniques are limited by the desktop application and implements a large number of well-established vi-
employed and performance is lost during graphic com- sualization algorithms and techniques. It can run on
mands interception and distribution to the cluster such distributed memory architecture to analyze large data
that immersion and feedback are severely affected. sets and to drive VR displays. Using ParaView, we can
Due to these disadvantages, we use software pack- modify visualization parameters directly in the VR en-
ages with native cluster rendering capabilities such as vironment. Unfortunately, it lacks more sophisticated
VRED, ParaView or Unity in conjunction with Mid- interaction and presentation features.
dleVR. All of these are introduced below:
Unity is a complete game engine by Unity Technolo-
gies [19]. It is available in a free and a commercial editor
VRED is a commercial software program by Autodesk variant with the latter supporting more advanced ren-
(former PI-VR) specializing in photorealistic real-time dering techniques (soft shadows, HDR, post-processing
product rendering running on Windows [2]. It is built effects) and team collaboration features. Unity has sev-
on top of OpenSG, an open-source scene graph library eral rendering backends (OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Web-
which offers clustered rendering [60]. VRED can ar- GL, DirectX ) so it can be run on all major platforms as
range imported 3D objects in a virtual scene, allows well as on the Web (with an additional browser plug-
modifying of material (properties such as how the sur- in) [73]. Unity’s basic scope of operation does not in-
face of the 3D objects reacts to lighting) and light- clude any interaction functionality but it has a compre-
ing parameters but is neither modeling software nor hensive scripting documentation and an active plug-in

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


community so that it is very easy to integrate missing the VR frameworks used in the VISLab, i.e. OpenSG for
features. Application testing can be done directly in the VRED [6] and Autodesk FBX for Unity [7]. Conversion
Unity editor by modifying the application at runtime. can be either done manually in the OGS Data Explorer
However, Unity created applications cannot run in a or in a batch process by employing ParaView ’s Python
clustered environment. Therefore MiddleVR is used. scripting interface. The second approach is especially
useful when converting large sequences of complex data
MiddleVR is a generic virtual reality middleware from sets such as time steps of simulation results from tran-
i’m in VR designed to work with different 3D applica- sient finite element models. During conversion, meta-
tions [27]. It features a graphical configuration tool to data is appended to the data sets to include information
set up VR systems independent of specific software. It not necessarily supported in FBX such as a specific ma-
implements interaction devices, stereoscopic rendering terial and rendering setup or time stepping information.
and clustering when using software not supporting this This metadata is evaluated when loading the data sets
functionality. The MiddleVR configuration is then used into Unity and can be queried, e.g. for displaying the
in a Unity plug-in to enable all these features in Unity time stepping information as a text overlay. Multiple
applications. The MiddleVR-enabled Unity application data sets can be arranged both in a spatial but also in
is VR system agnostic, once compiled it can be run on a temporal context and a variety of presentation tech-
any VR system supported by MiddleVR. A disadvan- niques (e.g. defining camera animations, fading in/out
tage of this approach is that the final application cannot of data sets, selection of subsets, displaying additional
be run inside the Unity editor but stand-alone, so that information) are implemented, see [56] for details.
it cannot be altered interactively at runtime. The fact
that a recompilation of the application takes just a few
3 Overview of VISLab applications
seconds lessens that drawback.
In the future, we will focus on the use of Unity as In the following, several case studies are presented which
a platform for highly interactive visualizations to il- used our visualization workflows and utilized the VIS-
lustrate and discuss complex phenomena. In contrast, Lab. Most of them have a background in hydrology,
ParaView is more suited for rapid prototyping and ex- geosciences or energy but research projects also include
ploration of complex data sets but will also play an topics in urban planning, climate prediction and biodi-
important role in future workflows (see 4.1). versity.

2.4 Workflows 3.1 Ammer catchment

For simulation, we employ OpenGeoSys [36], an open- The catchment of the river Ammer in southwest Ger-
source platform and flexible numerical framework for many has been selected as the study region for a holis-
the simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical / chemi- tic analysis of the water cycle coupled to reactive solute
cal (THM/C ) processes in porous and fractured media transport, for addressing water and solute fluxes at the
with applications in geoscience and hydrology. In order catchment scale as a function of and in feedback with
to simulate these processes, models are defined that in- changes in climate, land use, and water usage [22]. The
clude as much relevant data as possible to account for river has a length of 25 km and is a tributary to the
all phenomena defining that natural system. Heteroge- Neckar. Its catchment has a size of 180 km2 with a ge-
neous data sets representing the model characteristics ology comprised of a sequence of Triassic strata form-
are given as input parameters to the simulation soft- ing a landscape characterized by escarpments [63]. The
ware which returns result data sets predicting system Ammer is mainly fed by groundwater from the karstic
behavior in areas of interest. and fractured aquifers and drains the catchment at a
We use visualization both when setting up the model rate of ca. 1 m3 /s.
and simulation as well as to analyze simulation result The finite-element groundwater model is based on
data. As a basis for creating visualizations, we employ a digital elevation model with a resolution of 100 m in
VTK which is also integrated into the OGS Data Ex- combination with interpolated subsurface layers based
plorer framework (a data integration and visualization on the stratigraphic data of over 100 boreholes. For sim-
tool for pre- and postprocessing OpenGeoSys simula- ulation purposes, the subsurface information has been
tion data [56]) as well as ParaView. combined into four separate layers, consisting of a part-
We provide utilities and ParaView plug-ins to con- ly karstified limestone aquifer overlaid by Keuper layers.
vert VTK visualization data to formats supported by In addition, the scene includes the stream network and

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


groundwater production wells, which are employed as aquifers (confined and unconfined) of circa 400 m thick-
boundary conditions for the model as well as raster data ness including steep hydraulic gradients, which serve
with groundwater recharge information. Based on the as the only fresh water resources in this region. Espe-
results of a steady-state groundwater recharge simula- cially the visualization of the numerical groundwater
tion, the presentation also includes iso-surfaces repre- flow model (see figure 3), which was implemented into
senting the groundwater head as well as stream tracers OpenGeoSys, helps to detect uncertainties of the hy-
for the visualization of flow paths within the catchment. drogeological input data sets and enables a comprehen-
See [63] for more information on the groundwater study sion of the flow dynamics of the heterogeneous partly-
and [57] for model setup and data visualization. karstified limestone aquifer. To this end the calibrated
steady state groundwater flow model provides quantifi-
cations of the water balance of the subsurface catch-
3.2 Western Dead Sea – Sustainable management of ment and is the starting point for the transient mod-
water in arid and semi-arid regions eling of surface and subsurface flow processes [21]. The
hydrological model J2000g [39, 40] was applied to esti-
mate i.e. the groundwater recharge of the widely dis-
tributed bare rock soil cover for a 30-year period. Its
result was transferred as a time dependent boundary
condition to the 3D finite element mesh nodes with a
resolution of 250 m and represents by its trend the con-
tinuous lowering of the water level in the aquifer system
due to overpumping issues.

3.3 Nankou – Groundwater deterioration in a


suburban area of Beijing

Fig. 3 Cross section of the Upper and Lower Judea Group


aquifer of the Western Dead Sea catchment, divided by an
thin aquiclude (red line). The density of the groundwater flow
paths with its velocity vectors describes the groundwater flow
dynamics of the Cretaceous aquifer system from west of the
catchment towards the Dead Sea. Colored spheres show the
locations of wells, climate stations and cities for better orien-
tation.

The catchment of the Western Dead Sea (Israel /


Palestine) was analyzed within the SUMAR-Project and
demonstrates a groundwater flow model of a semi-arid
to arid case study which is coupled with a hydrologi-
cal model. The climatic conditions exacerbate the tense
situation of the drinking water supply for the 3800 km2
large study area. They also lead to political and socio- Fig. 4 A simulated groundwater flow system is shown around
environmental stresses. The overall aim of the SUMAR- pumping wells in the Nankou area with nitrate concentrations
as colors on the streamlines.
project [67] focuses on the quantity of groundwater and
surface fluxes inside the catchment, which is influenced
by faults of the Jordan Rift Valley System and drains Nitrate contamination of groundwater resources is a
towards the shrinking, hypersaline and endoheric Dead severe environmental problem worldwide, mostly caused
Sea. by extensive agriculture using large amounts of fertilizer
Several methods were applied to localize (with re- to increase plant productivity. Nitrate has extremely
mote sensing data), to quantify (with 2D hydrologi- long residence time in the subsurface, and remedia-
cal and 3D groundwater flow modeling) and to simu- tion is therefore hampered and requires costly long-
late water flow volumes and flow paths (with ground- term efforts. Therefore, simulation and visualization are
water flow modeling [20]) towards the Dead Sea. The important tools for planning and optimization of re-
study area is characterized by two Cretaceous limestone mediation scenarios. Figure 4 depicts the visualization

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


of an OpenGeoSys subsurface model for the develop- ter intrusion process were analyzed by utilizing Par-
ment of remediation efforts of nitrate contaminations in aView. ParaView was run on a parallel cluster com-
China (Nankou project) using the VR environment of puter to omit bandwidth limitations to copy large data
the VISLab. To present complex hydro-geological struc- and to reduce computational burden on standard desk-
tures and results of nitrate remediation in the Nankou top machines. Thirdly, results of the modeling were vi-
area to stakeholders and decision-makers of the Bei- sualized, which helped during discussions with experts
jing district, 3D visualization techniques have been suc- and tremendously aided in knowledge transfer during
cessfully used to foster both understanding and discus- a visit of Omani authorities from the Ministry of Re-
sion of the invoked environmental problems within the gional Municipalities and Water Resources. Addition-
geographical context, data availability and simulation ally, throughout all stages of model development, cali-
results for the Nankou nitrate remediation project in bration, scenario analysis, and result presentation, the
China [69]. VISLab was utilized [76].

3.4 Oman – Saltwater intrusion modeling 3.5 TERENO – Observatory Harz/Central German
Lowlands
Within the project International Water Research Al-
liance Saxony (IWAS), one of the main goals was to as-
sess and evaluate water resources under various natural
and human induced stress conditions. Several subpro-
jects considered study regions in different parts of the
world [30].

Fig. 6 Visualization of the Bode catchment (bold red lines)


of the TERENO investigation based on a digital elevation
model (DEM) including the intensive test sites, Rappbode
reservoir [59], Hohes Holz, Sauerbach, Selke catchment host-
Fig. 5 Analyzing groundwater flow patterns at the near ing the Schäfertal.
coastal salt/freshwater interface (red/blue color on stream-
lines) in combination with groundwater surface drawdown
due to pumping activities for determining subsurface water
TERENO is a large-scale project aiming to catalog
vulnerabilities utilizing the stereoscopic mode of the VISLab.
the long-term ecological, social and economic impact
of global change at a regional level [83]. Four areas in
One of these case studies, a region-scale study on Germany have been selected and are now heavily instru-
density driven flow in a coastal aquifer that is used as mented to allow extensive studies and simulations for
source for agriculture irrigation, intensively made use of researchers from different disciplines. Hydrogeological
visualization options during model setup, verification of analysis in central Germany is being conducted in the
the variable density process [4], and for the transfer of catchment of the River Bode with a size of 3,100 km2
knowledge to local authorities [76, 78]. Firstly, visual- (see figure 6). Within that area a number of intensive
ization was used to investigate plausibility of the set test sites have been selected, ranging in size from a
up hydro-geological model, that was constructed based small area of about one hectare, concerned with assess-
on an extended inverse weighting distance interpola- ment of water balance in a forested region, to the com-
tion [77]. Secondly, large data sets of model calibra- plete catchment of one of the Bode’s tributaries with
tion and long term scenario simulations of the saltwa- a size of over 450 km2 where hydrological processes in

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


the stream as well as in the hyporheic zone are investi- geologic subsurface. With the help of modeling and vi-
gated [61, 72] as shown in figure 7. sualization real pictures of the hidden underground can
be generated. Figure 8 depicts the illustration of a tun-
nel system in the Mont Terri geotechnical underground
laboratory in Switzerland which is operated by a con-
sortium of international research institutions [45]. In
order to model THM/C processes in host rock poten-
tially suited for radioactive waste deposition, appropri-
ate numerical models are required [37,65,82]. Those nu-
merical simulators use a geometric discretization of the
domain of interest. The red lines in figure 8 illustrate
the mesh edges of a finite element discretization. With-
out 3D visualization techniques the analysis of mesh
quality would be a very confusing task. Mesh quality
is important to provide accurate results of numerical
simulations.
Fig. 7 Liquid flow turbulences in a streambed (top) are con-
currently visualized with water intrusion in the underground
forming a groundwater flow system (bottom).

The presentation consists of over 70 heterogeneous


data sets of different scales and resolution. Most no-
table are surface representations, consisting of a ter-
rain model of the whole region with over 1 mio trian-
gles with a max edge length of 30 m. Terrain models of
the intensive test sites also exist at a much finer reso-
lution, ranging from 30 m for the larger regions to just
1 m for the regions covering 1 km2 or less. Various color
Fig. 8 Finite element discretization in the Mont Terri geo-
transfer functions or textures can be applied to these
technical laboratory are shown as red lines overlaid on the
surfaces, including elevation information, soil moisture, tunnel system.
or indication of land use. While textures are originating
from raster data, transfer functions are based on statis-
tical data or look-up tables. Geometrical information
includes the courses of streams at various resolutions
and displayed with different prominence. Furthermore, 3.7 Groß-Schönebeck – Deep geothermal energy
the scene includes climate stations, measurement net-
works, bathymetries of some of the larger water bod- The Groß-Schönebeck site (50 km north of Berlin, Ger-
ies within the region, structural models for the sub- many) was established as an in situ laboratory for deep
surface of two intensive test sites, borehole data and sedimentary geothermal systems. The project aims to
much more. Most regional data sets are only visible develop drilling and stimulation technologies to access
when the presentation zooms in on the intensive test deep aquifers in the North German basin where for-
site they are located in, to avoid unnecessary clutter of mation temperatures are up to 150 ◦ C. Two wells have
the overall scene. Still, data integration of so many data been drilled to a depth of more than 4 km to form a
sets acquired by different means is quite challenging. A borehole doublet in permeable porous sandstones and
number of different preprocessing steps were required fractured volcanic rocks of the Lower Permian [90]. Se-
for concurrent display and visibility of small data sets ries of hydraulic stimulations resulted in four induced
within the larger context [56, 57]. hydraulic fractures to increase the reservoir permeabil-
ity. The reservoir is also surrounded by natural fault
systems and natural faults striking N to NE are ex-
3.6 Mont Terri – Geotechnical field laboratory pected to serve as the main flow path in the current
stress field [9].
Visualization methods are particularly important for One of the ongoing studies in the project is to ana-
geoscientific applications as information is buried in the lyze impacts of the fault zone permeability on reservoir

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


(i.e. seismic attributes like coherency), a geological 3D
model [89], as well as modeling results (from kinematic
retro-deformation and geomechanical forward model-
ing) into an immersive presentation which can be shown
on VR display systems.
The first steps were the visualization of our high-
resolution, geological 3D model and the 3D seismic data
set in ParaView. Conventional 3D P-wave seismic data
can image faults with an offset of hundreds of meters
down to circa 20 meters. Using seismic attributes (i.e.
variance) and visualization of the results within an VR
environment, we were able to identify faults with smaller
Fig. 9 Hydraulic behavior visualization with streamlines and offsets (between 10 and 20 meters). This complements
arrows representing flow path of injected water and heat the detailed 3D seismic interpretation and thus helps
transport process represented by iso-surfaces of the cooling
front (about 134 ◦ C).
to identify possible pathways for injected CO2 .
3D seismics in SEG-Y format cannot be directly im-
ported into ParaView, thus a data conversion tool for
dynamics and overall productivity using a numerical seismic data was developed [8]. It imports rectilinear-
model. The simulated domain includes a horizontal ex- shaped seismic data in a plain text format into Par-
tent of around 5 km with maximum vertical extension aView using OpendTect [51].
of 594 m. Based on raster data (for geological layers)
and points data (forming faults, induced fractures and
well paths), an unstructured grid was generated to rep-
resent the complex reservoir structure with more than
one million nodes and elements. The simulation takes
into account flow and heat transport processes in the
reservoir for over 100 years assuming injection and pro-
duction rates of 18 m3 /h and injection temperature of
70 ◦ C. Simulation results in the case of highly conduc-
tive fault zones were visualized with 3D techniques. The
visualization shown in Figure 9 is helpful to understand
the three dimensional flow path in the complex reser-
voir structure (mainly along the faults) and subsequent
reservoir cooling behavior (convection along the faults Fig. 10 ParaView running in the VISLab showing a spatial
subset and cross-sections of 3D seismic data and isosurfaces
with conduction near production). See [90] and [9] for of interesting features (modified from [41]).
more information about the Groß-Schönebeck site and
the reservoir modeling and [88] for previous work on
uncertainty visualization.
Numerical modeling with OGS has been used in sim-
ilar case studies to analyse heat transport and induced 3.9 CO2MAN – Visualization of a CO2 Sequestration
phenomena in deep geothermal systems [38, 43, 80]. Pilot Site

In order to use fossil energy resources for power gen-


3.8 PROTECT – Prediction of deformation to ensure eration without contributing to the greenhouse effect,
carbon traps the resulting CO2 can be separated and then stored
in subsurface reservoirs without being released into the
The PROTECT project [41] is a partner project of the atmosphere. This overall process is called Carbon Cap-
Australian CO2CRC Otway project [13]. Its aim is to ture and Storage (CCS) and its feasibility is currently
determine the seismic and sub-seismic characteristics under scrutiny in many countries. CCS is also used
of potential fluid migration pathways between reservoir for Enhanced Oil or Gas Recovery (EOR/EGR respec-
and surface. The goal of this part of the PROTECT tively) [68] in order to stimulate reservoirs for oil or gas
project that is presented here, was to generate an inter- production by injecting carbon dioxide into the surface.
active visualization that combines original geophysical To investigate the resulting effects on the reservoirs,
(i.e. seismic data and borehole data) and derived data several field sites have been built and/or are being used

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


for tests, such as the Ketzin pilot site in Germany which
is coordinated by the German Research Centre for Geo-
sciences (GFZ). As part of the BMBF funded research
project CO2MAN, simulations have been run to pre-
dict the behavior of the CO2 in the Ketzin reservoir,
using different simulators (Eclipse, OpenGeoSys [79],
TOUGHMP ) to subsequently compare the results [32]
for real-site investigation as well as for generic bench-
mark studies [35].

In order to present the CO2MAN project to guests


in a comprehensible way and to improve communica-
tion during project meetings, we have implemented the Fig. 12 Results of prototyp simulation model: Fluid paths
(streamlines), Isosurfaces of hydraulic head colored by strati-
features necessary to create a synoptic visualization. graphic layer. The fault zones are depicted as green colored,
It shows the geophysical measurements which are the wired volumes.
basis for the interpretation and construction of the geo-
metrical model together with the resulting static model,
its parameterization and the simulation results. The vi-
sualization of the Ketzin reservoir is done using the soft-
ware VRED that has been extended using OpenSG and
3.10 Thuringian Syncline – Faults modeling
Qt. The static model (e.g. horizons and borehole paths)
can be exported from the geo-modeling software Go-
cad directly in OpenSG format using a plug-in [87] and
so imported into VRED without any subsequent con- The INFLUINS project investigates the movement of
version. Further, we use 3D textures for rendering 3D- fluids in the subsurface in the Thuringian Syncline which
seismic data by interactively slicing through the data covers most of the federal state of Thuringia in Ger-
set, and provide a user interface that allows for inter- many. Due to its formation history, the syncline con-
active control of these slices (see figure 11). The grid tains many fault zones. The focus of the project is on
and the properties of the reservoir and also the simu- the flow from the region of the uppermost soil layer
lation results can be visualized interactively, using the down to the basement at depths in several kilometers
VTK-to-OpenSG integration that we have described in including the effects of fault zones.
Zehner et al [88].
The geological model is based on a GoCad [18] strati-
graphic grid which covers an area of 11 800 km2 . The
west-northwest to east-southeast extent is circa 150 km2 ,
the north-northeast to south-southwest is circa 80 km2 .
The geological model contains 12 stratigraphic layers
and 54 fault zones. The visualization is used to get a
better understanding of the course of the stratigraphic
layers and fault zones in the subsurface model. For sim-
ulation purposes the challenge is to incorporate the ge-
ological model into a finite element mesh [87]. Also,
the elements of the mesh have to meet certain quality
criteria such as edge-length ratio. Visualizations of the
mesh and its quality help to identify improvable mesh
areas and compare alignment to the original geological
model. Therefore visualization was of great importance
to verify particular steps of the simulation model setup
Fig. 11 Scientists interactively explore seismic data from the and to check if boundary conditions were correctly in-
Ketzin reservoir in the VISLab. The red and blue colored
slices can be positioned at arbitrary locations in the data set.
corporated into the simulation model. Furthermore the
visualization is a valuable tool to interpret the simula-
tion results of the prototype simulation model as seen
in figure 12.

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


3.11 Exploration and management strategies for
shallow geothermal energy in residential sites

Shallow geothermal energy is a resource-saving alter-


native to conventional heating and cooling applications
in residential buildings [23]. Hence, there is a strong
increase in large-scale geothermal projects, e.g. provid-
ing heat for entire residential neighborhoods [1]. There-
fore, novel strategies for shallow geothermal site explo-
ration and management are being developed to pro-
mote the sustainable thermal uses of the subsurface.
These strategies focus on the enhancement of system
efficiency by optimizing system design while minimiz-
ing environmental impacts. One application example to Fig. 13 Visualization of measured subsurface parameters at
test the novel exploration strategy is currently being in- a field site in Taucha, Germany (two dimensional geoelectric
profiles, horizontal groundwater level, temporary groundwa-
vestigated in an urban neighbourhood in Taucha (near ter observation wells, and surface property borders).
Leipzig, Germany). For 53 newly developed properties
the use of shallow geothermal energy is one option to
cover the heating and cooling demand. Different ap- combination with observation data from weather sta-
plication scenarios are analyzed (e.g. open and closed tions (i.e. amount of precipitation at a station) and time
systems, heat storage) to determine induced long-term independent static data (i.e. river networks, cities) for
temperature difference within the soil and groundwa- analysis and detection of correlations and inconsisten-
ter. Heat transport is governed by (hydro-) geologi- cies. The case study area is situated in northern central
cal and petrophysical parameters and their variation Europe with an area of about 1,300 by 580 km. It in-
in space. This makes reliable high resolution model pa- cludes various landscapes such as the Alps, the lowlands
rameterization essential. Three dimensional model sim- of France, and the English Channel. This area is a com-
ulations and visualizations are a basis for the compre- mon domain for regional weather simulations as it is an
hensive understanding of complex processes within the area of propagation of frontal systems. The case study
subsurface. Moreover, this visualization approach is an shows a winter situation on the 28th of January 2012
important tool to identify missing data and to prove where the air was moist and cold.
consistency of data from different sources [74]. In the For a detailed analysis of processes such as convec-
case of the Taucha field site, it enhances understanding tion and heat transport, subsets of the area are defined.
of temperature anomalies (e.g. heat plume formation) Figure 14 shows an example of such a subset, where
along borehole heat exchanger after different operating we concurrently visualized wind fields, mass fraction,
times. For instance, temperature changes in 5 to 6 m humidity and heat fluxes in relation to the digital el-
distance to the borehole heat exchanger can be evalu- evation model. The visualization is used to provide a
ated, which are officially set distances to neighbouring detailed look at processes and investigate if they have
borehole heat exchangers [24]. Furthermore, the visual- been captured correctly by the model. Different time
ization is a valuable tool to support scientific outreach steps are displayed in an animated manner and the
and enhance transfer of knowledge (figure 13). Subsur- user can analyze the development of convection, observe
face characteristics and processes, which are usually in- heat transports or study wind fields. The challenge in
accessible, are comprehensively presented to stakehold- analyzing these data sets is their highly multivariate
ers from public and private sector. Raising awareness of character that requires stereoscopic 3D visualization for
the importance of a sustainable thermal use of the shal- analysis. The visual combination of simulation, obser-
low subsurface and showing consequences of its overex- vation, and statical data, which differ in their spatial
ploitation will promote the development of novel inves- and temporal resolution, supports the scientists to gen-
tigation and management strategies. erate their hypothesis and to verify or disprove it [25].

3.12 Climate data – Visual analysis 3.13 Pore scale modeling and visualization

In this case study, simulation data of the Weather Re- For a detailed understanding of fluid flow behavior on
search and Forecasting (WRF) model are visualized in the pore-scale in unconsolidated sediments, simulations

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


Fig. 15 Pore-scale visualization of sticky particles on grains’
surfaces. The actor is looking from inside of a grain looking
through it; The others grain’s surfaces shown from outside
Fig. 14 Climate simulation data visualization showing wind
are rendered opaque.
fields (streamlines), mass fraction (white and blue isosur-
faces), humidity (slices in the back) and heat fluxes (arrow
glyphs on the surface) above the digital elevation model.
which the solid reacts under consumption or release of
heat depending on the prevailing physicochemical con-
of the incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations were per- ditions. Simulations are performed with several objec-
formed. The unconsolidated artificial (in-silico) sedi- tives in mind, i.e. to gain process understanding; to sup-
ments were generated with the SettleDyn software pro- port material development, selection and characteriza-
gram [48] and prepared as input meshes for a finite vol- tion; to find optimal operation conditions; to estimate
ume method. The OpenFOAM simulation software [52] device efficiencies and identify efficiency losses.
was used to obtain a solution of the incompressible
In some of the considered systems internal hetero-
Navier-Stokes Equations in the pore network geometry.
geneities can develop. Visualization methods are a use-
Additionally, a particle tracking method was applied to
ful tool to investigate the complex flow patterns, heat
simulate particle deposition on the grains’ surfaces.
transfer characteristics and chemical reaction profiles
For the particular realization of the randomly gener-
that arise as a consequence of these heterogeneities (fig-
ated porous medium we studied the fluid flow patterns
ure 16). This affords the user with an impression of
in the pores and distribution of the sticking particles on
limitations in mass and heat transport and can help to
the surfaces of the grains. Especially the local fluid-flow
identify locations of, for example, thermal losses. Dur-
structures were of interest.
ing cyclic operation (e.g. thermal load buffering) spa-
For the visualization of multiple domain boundaries
tially distributed areas of increased or decreased mate-
we used a two-sided material rendering technique (de-
rial usage can be identified and linked to thermophysi-
scribed in detail in [49]) obtaining an unobscured view
cal fatigue mechanisms.
on the local fluid flow visualization simultaneously keep-
ing the reference to the geometry. Figure 15 depicts the
particle visualization with two-sided materials render-
ing.

3.14 Energy storage

A strong coupling between non-equilibrium heat trans-


port at high temperatures, multicomponent mass trans- Fig. 16 Paraview visualization of a calcium oxide heat store
with an internal heterogeneity (displayed geometrically on the
port and thermochemical reactions as well as high gra-
right) during discharge. The volumetric plot on the left dis-
dients and nonlinearities are characteristic challenges plays the reaction rate (kilogram per second) with which the
for numerical models of thermochemical heat storage calcium oxide reacts to calcium hydroxide under consumption
devices. Such models have been developed for Open- of water vapor from the gas phase. Arrows indicate the direc-
tion and magnitude of the gas flux. The middle plot finally
GeoSys in the EWI2 and NUMTHECHSTORE projects
represents a section through the mid-plane of the device and
and are applied to systems based on metal hydroxides, shows the internal temperature distribution in Kelvin. The
metal oxides and microporous adsorbents [47,66]. Typ- grid at the bottom represents a porous filter.
ically, these devices contain the material in a granular
form, which is then permeated by a gas mixture with

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


3.15 Biodiversity in rain forests or with environmental, nature and landscape protection
issues.
The forests of the earth play an important role in the
global carbon cycle. More than 50 % of the carbon stored As a first step a workflow has been developed and
in aboveground vegetation is assumed to be in the trop- a program has been implemented in C++ for the ef-
ics [54]. The dynamics and processes that drive these ficient semiautomatic construction of a 3D landscape
forest ecosystems are only partly understood. Knowl- model from a library of 3D tree models and GIS (geo-
edge about the dynamics of these ecosystems is crucial graphic information systems) data [84]. The model gen-
for ensuring protection and sustainable management erated has been constructed using the OpenSG scene-
of timber, water and other ecological services of these graph and could be loaded into VRED for displaying it
forests. In the working group of Andreas Huth at the in the VISLab. Rendering up to 22 000 trees, each one
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Depart- consisting of more than 50 000 polygons at the highest
ment of Ecologial Modelling) the process-based forest level of detail, required the scene to be highly optimized
growth model FORMIND [33,34] is used to analyze the and to use several rendering tricks, such as the level of
spatial and temporal forest dynamics by simulating re- detail combined with tree structures, and shading tech-
cruitment, mortality and tree growth. With the help of nologies.
the VISLab we are able to visualize the forest growth
from a local scale of several square meters up to sev-
eral hectares. By this, we gain insights into visible and
non-visible processes of the forest ecosystem as shown
in figure 17. Observable processes comprise landslides,
fire events and tree falling, whereby invisible processes
are included, for example local carbon fluxes. Besides
the scientific approach of visualization, it also gives us
the opportunity to easily transfer the concept of forest
modeling to a broader, mostly non-scientific, commu-
nity.

Fig. 18 Interactive windpark planning in the VISLab : The


user places wind-turbines and chooses viewing positions on a
2D map on a control pc. The visualization on the large screen
is updated in synchronously and can then be further explored
using VR interaction techniques.

Fig. 17 Visualization of a South Ecuadorian montane for-


est. Different tree crown colors represent the different tree
species grouping used in the FORMIND model. Photo: André As a second step, we developed a scenario for how
Künzelmann such a visualization of a landscape could be used to dis-
cuss the design of a potential windpark within this land-
scape [85]. We extended VRED’s user interface, using
the Qt library [55], in order to allow users to navigate
3.16 Landscape visualization and wind-park planning through the virtual landscape without getting lost and
to enable them to perform simple visually driven plan-
We have developed a scenario for applying the VISLab ning tasks themselves, such as choosing wind turbines
to the visualization of landscapes and for interactive from a set of predefined types and placing it in the field
tasks, such as interviewing members of the public about while obeying constraints like the minimum distance
their opinions regarding the location and different de- of the turbines from each other. As a test of whether
signs for potential new wind parks. This work has been novice users could use such a system and in order to get
carried out within the context of a project that aims at feedback on different setups, we presented it to mem-
finding ways to minimize the conflicts of land use for bers of the general public at Leipzig’s regional science
energy generation using wind-turbines with other uses day, giving the control of the system to the users.

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


3.17 Urban environments 4.1 In-situ visualization

To help in the creation of urban environment visualiza-


In-situ- or Co-visualization allows the creation of result
tions usable for social sciences and for urban develop-
analysis and visualization as an integrated part of the
ment, a procedural [14] building model generator was
simulation process. By observing the simulation process
developed [5]. The software called CityGenerator al-
it is possible to detect errors in the input data early. The
lows the user to procedurally generate building mod-
user can then cancel the simulation, adapt the input
els as well as small city scenes as shown in figure 19
data and restart the simulation. This saves computing
out of simple building blocks such as façade textures,
time, decreases the workload of scientists and gives rise
doors, windows and decoration elements. The user can
to an effective iterative process of refining and adapting
specify input parameters including the building foot-
the simulation. Because the in-situ visualization can
print, building height and designs a template façade in a
be run without user interaction, it can also be useful
graphical user interface. This template façade is defined
for software quality management and benchmarking by
by a set of rules from a formal grammar [46]. The ac-
automatically comparing visualization output and an-
tual model generation is implemented as a VRED-plug-
alyzed data between different program versions.
in allowing for immediate presentation in the VISLab.
Level-of-detail (LOD) techniques ensure a good perfor- Normally, the simulation process is divided into four
mance of larger scenes. parts: during preprocessing the raw input data is trans-
formed and validated. The model setup configures the
involved model for the given problem appropriately.
Typically the simulation step produces large amounts
of result data, especially in the field of coupled process
simulations, which are then processed and analyzed in
the postprocessing step to reduce data by significance
and to identify interesting aspects. Usually the post-
processing takes place on frontend-nodes of the HPC
system or on the user’s machine where storage capacity
may be limited. In the latter case all result data have
to be transfered over the computer network which can
Fig. 19 Historic facades and building models were used as be the limiting factor in various applications. The an-
examples to demonstrate the ability of the procedural city alyzed data as the outcome of the postprocessing step
generation system. can be much smaller than the simulation result data.
Therefore, the postprocessing should become inte-
grated into the simulation itself to avoid the commu-
nication bottleneck by transferring the analyzed data
4 Future work only and to allow users to monitor their simulated pro-
cesses to ensure reasonable behavior.
In the future, we would like to foster the application of
We started using the library Catalyst [71] for in-
scientific visualization in daily research work. All soft-
tegration of such an in-situ visualization system into
ware and tools we develop are freely available and open
OpenGeoSys. Catalyst is an extension of VTK / Par-
source. Accessibility to these tools is crucial so we aim
aView. On the basis of a representative example data
to provide comprehensive documentation [53] which can
set the user defines a visualization pipeline (either by a
be enhanced with video tutorials in the future.
script or interactively in ParaView ) which is then exe-
For further outreach and education we offer excur-
cuted after defined time step intervals of the simulation.
sions to the VISLab for students in environmental sci-
During simulation time the user gets processed data as
ences, we arrange training courses several times a year
a result of the visualization pipeline, images of the vi-
and organize workshops at visualization conferences [16].
sualization and an interactive remote visualization in
To face the challenge of visualizing increasingly com-
ParaView.
plex models and simulations, especially in the field of
high-performance computing (HPC), we will integrate Furthermore, it should be possible to view the re-
visualization methods into simulation codes. A simpli- mote visualization in the VR environment of the VIS-
fication of the technical setup of the TESSIN VISLab Lab, which is also connected to the HPC system of the
will unlock more fields of applications. UFZ via a fast computer network (Infiniband ).

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3785-5


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