Path Line Attributes - an Information Visualization Approach to Analyzing the Dynamic Behavior of 3D Time-Dependent Flow Fields

We describe an approach to visually analyzing the dynamic behavior of 3D time-dependent flow fields by considering the behavior of the path lines. At selected positions in the 4D space-time domain, we compute a number of local and global properties of path lines describing relevant features of them. The resulting multivariate data set is analyzed by applying state-of-the-art information visualization approaches in the sense of a set of linked views (scatter plots, parallel coordinates, etc.) with interactive brushing and focus+context visualization. The selected path lines with certain properties are integrated and visualized as colored 3D curves. This approach allows an interactive exploration of intricate 4D flow structures. We apply our method to a number of flow data sets and describe how path line attributes are used for describing characteristic features of these flows.