Cinematic Science Helps Researchers Explore Data From NASA’s CAMP2Ex Field Campaign

Bringing together data from numerous sensor nodes and visualizing it is a critical part of the scientific process. But creating accessible visualizations is not easy, especially when those sensor nodes communicate complex Earth-science data.

Researchers collaborated with programmers and designers from the Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to prototype a new process for communicating data from NASA field expeditions.

The prototype uses a combination of commercially available, open source, and home-grown software to transform raw data from NASA’s recent Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) into a 3D animation and a data dashboard video. These visualizations made it easier for researchers to explore data gathered by all the instrument teams during their time in the Philippines. The final product package included a three-minute video in 3D and a longer data dashboard video depicting 76 different data variables.

The project was supported by the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program in NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO).

Music credit: "Relentless Data” by Jay Price [Universal Production Music]

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio
Katie Jepson (KBRwyle): Lead Producer
Gage Taylor (KBR, Inc.): Lead Writer
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support

This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14038. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14038. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.

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