Illustrative Visualization of Hurricane Advisory Information∗

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) Tropical Cyclone Advisories contain several heterogeneous data types that are difficult to represent graphically in a single image. However, the understanding of these statements is vital for human safety in areas that are regularly affected by these devastating storms. Thus, the motivation behind the current work is to develop new graphical representations of the advisory information using a single, coherent image, that conveys the past and present information about a particular storm of interest. Inspired by artistic brush strokes, we have developed illustrative visualization techniques for representing the advisories. The NHC website represents wind swath information from past advisories related to each storm graphically as color-filled polygons. Other advisory information, such as storm position and intensity forecasts, are available in separate plots on the website. However, visualization research studies have shown that using separate plots can significantly hinder the ability to discover patterns in multidimensional analyses, especially when looking for combinations of conditions [2]. Furthermore, the use of color-filled polygons makes it difficult to encode additional information in the plot due to layer occlusion issues. Our new illustrative visualization techniques are designed to address these issues by mapping several of the advisory data attributes to the visual features of artistic brush strokes. By condensing the NHC advisory parameters into a single image, the current illustrative visualization method yields a promising approach to the dispensation of this vital information.