Visualization of Auroral Phenomena

Abstract
Aurora borealis and Aurora australis are light emissions due to energized electrons originating in the Sun. As part of the dynamic processes in the Sun solar flares are created. These flares create plasma forming the so-called solar wind. When the solar wind interacts with the Earth s magnetic field it distorts the field and forms a type of bow-shock compressing the field sunwards and elongating the field on the opposite side of the Sun. The interface between the solar wind and the Earth s magnetic field is called the magnetopause and the interior of the distorted field, the magnetosphere. The auroral phenomena, or the so-called Northern Lights and Southern Lights, are night sky light shows resulting from the channeling of energized electrons in Earth s magnetosphere into the upper atmosphere. The aim of this paper is to use non-photorealistic rendering techniques to visualize these phenomena. In this paper we describe a new approach to visualize these phenomena using a pipeline of procedures processing simulated or real scientific auroral data. The pipeline involves particle decimation, 3D surface extraction, MR filter applications, and isocurves extraction. Alternative nonphotorealistic rendering techniques are also introduced. A rendered sequence of images is provided illustrating the result.
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Keywords
Computer Science
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