Image Design Forum

This is the page where most of the discussion is to take place. Click on the comment/feedback to read or comment on a particular topic.


A new 3D Globe image for Terra
Rudy: I am writing at the suggestion of Michael King to request a new 3-D global image similar to the one you provided earlier. Michael felt that while the image you generated--showing 3-D clouds over assimilated NDVI and aerosol and fire pixels--is spectacular, we have used it a LOT recently in our EOS publications. He felt that perhaps we should use a different one in our next publication. (I have an idea in mind; but I'd also like to hear yours.). Our next publication is a Terra (formerly EOS AM-1) poster and general public brochure companion set. The brochure cover will be identical to the poster design.
Submitted by Herring David on 4/22/99
RecID: Design.DavidHerring
Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
its very good site.
Submitted by Webmaster on 6/13/00
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerring.Webmaster
Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
David: Thanks again for your consideration of the 3D Globe image for your Outreach effort. In order to offer some variety, I have prepared a page with some design choices for the new NASA Terra poster image. Have a look. . Click on the Terra Poster link on the top of the page.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 4/22/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar
Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
The cloud rendering would look more realistic if the cloud database were interpolated to much higher resolution before the 3-D projection, so that individual cloud pixels did not look so much like blocky columns floating in air.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 4/25/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar.DennisChesters2
Re: Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
Yes, the 3D cloud rendering needs higher vertical resolution (i.e. devision of the IR temperature into more slices) to reduce the Vencian blind effect. I used here 16 'onion shells' for rendering, will try 32.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 4/25/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusarDesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar.DennisChesters2.RudolfHusar
Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
The cloud rendering has a strange on-off "venetian blind" effect with altitude.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 4/25/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar.DennisChesters1
Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
I favor using color-coded sea surface temperature for the ocean layer. Your example used a map of sea surface anomalies during El Nino, which is better if you are making points about ENSO episodes, but does not convey the normal global distribution, such as the great warm pool near Indonesia.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 4/25/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar.DennisChesters
Re: Re: A new 3D Globe image for Terra
My preference is the globe with the El Nino Sea Surface Tempreature Anomaly.
Submitted by Herring David on 4/22/99
RecID: DesignDesign.DavidHerringDesignDesign.DavidHerring.RudolfHusar.DavidHerring
Design choices for the new NASA Terra poster image
A new poster is being designed for the NASA Terra Program. The poster is to include a synthetic 3D globe image similar to the one used in the 20 foot EOS exhibit backdrop and poster .

The purpose of this web-based discussion is to build consensus regarding the new symbolic globe design that will properly represent Earth as a living, interacting planet.

Comments regarding the Terra globe design can be submitted below as a Response or as a new Forum item.

Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 4/20/99
RecID: Design.RudolfHusar
Picture OK for a real (or virtual) kiosk.
Your web site is nice looking and easy to understand and to navigate. The picture is worthy of show, especially in a real (or virtual) kiosk. It is quite nice, and deserves to "go public". The points below are meant to be helpful questions that occurred while I was going through the web site. Keep up the goood work.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters6
Re: Picture OK for a real (or virtual) kiosk.
Thanks for the niffty suggestion of a virtual kiosk on the NASA website. Before the virtual reality (VRML) era fully arrives, one could add a few animations, tell a story and make it an informative/learning experience for the kiosk visitors.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/25/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters6.RudolfHusar
Use JPEG not GIF to preserve color.
The pictures that get downloaded should not sacrifice color to the dithering that comes with 8-bit GIF. Use JPEG with mild compression to preserve smooth color changes, and don't shy from large images. The GIF images are OK for small screen or brochures.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters5
Re: Use JPEG not GIF to preserve color.
Thanks, it is good to know. We will make a link to a JPG version of the of the large 3DGLOBE image on the front page.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/25/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters5.RudolfHusar
Cloud rendering is ragged - use antialiasing?
The cloud rendering is sometimes a raggged 3D redrawing of 2D images. Can you render it with anti-aliasing and/or smoother interpolation?
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters4
Re: Cloud rendering is ragged - use antialiasing?
We could make it a bit smoother by breaking up the cloud into say 32 rather than the current 16 layers. (See the implementation )
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/25/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters4.RudolfHusar
Globe rendering with VRML
The globe would be especially interesting if rendered as a VRML globe that could be manipulated by the web client. Multiple parameters (layers) rendered on the globe are another possibility. This interactive technology is just emerging, and it will be common by the end of the year. See SGI's Cosmo player or Apple's Quicktime 3 VR, for example.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters3
Re: Globe rendering with VRML
I agree fully. VRML is a neat new technology that can make interaction be real fun and instructive. Take this little 3d VRML globe out for a spin...and imagine that you can zoom in and out at will to see your favored spots on the globe, change data layers, have taylored fly-by tours with a sexy virtual tourguide...Huh, I better stop now before I get subpoenaed.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/25/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters3.RudolfHusar
Biomass burning over sub-saharan Africa?
The mostly red pixels in sub-saharan Africa are a puzzle. The caption implies biomass burning, which is not the case there.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters2
Re: Biomass burning over sub-saharan Africa?
The red dots are fire sightings by the AVHRR sensor for January 1993. (See the implementation section). As to the type of aerosol leaving West Africa in January, it is a real question: is it Sahara dust blown southward toward the ITCZ or biomass smoke heading westward from where the fires are observed?
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/25/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters2.RudolfHusar
Where is the aerosol layer?
I don't see an aerosol layer over the ocean. What am I missing?
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters1
Re: Where is the aerosol layer?
The entire ocean surface is colored by the magnitude of the aerosol optical thickness, AOT derived from AVHRR . Red is high, blue is low AOT. See the implementation description.
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 2/24/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters1.RudolfHusar
I am not registerd - how do I comment?
I am not registered to make comments in your Forum. As I understand it, you have to first add my name to the allowed commenters.
Submitted by Chesters Dennis on 2/17/98
RecID: Design.DennisChesters
Re: I am not registerd - how do I comment?
Actually you can self-register on the People's page. Sorry for the unclear instructions. Your feedback helped us to improve the submission forms.
Submitted by Webmaster on 2/24/98
RecID: DesignDesign.DennisChesters.Webmaster
Thanks
Thanks for you help in producing dramatic data image for our display and AM-1 brochure. It looks great!
Submitted by King Michael on 2/02/98
RecID: Design.MichaelKing
A suggestion on rendering
Gee Rudy, pretty impressive. Thanks for letting me preview this. May I suggest that you couple this rendering with the data given on SeaWiFS Imagery in the Baja Region on a daily basis to make this really up to date. Removing tongue from cheek: Nice job. -steve
Submitted by schwartz stephen e. on 1/12/98
RecID: Design.stephene.schwartz
Re: A suggestion on rendering
Thanks for the idea Steve, but why stop with just 'seeing' the Earth with SeaWiFS? How about also sensing the surface roughness, the winds , the rain and the humidity everywhere and of course having special goggles that you can put on to see ozone, haze, or CO. Since the entire globe is in your palm so to speak, you should certainly be able to rotate it, have a closer look anywhere on the globe. And then to see how it really works, you should be able to 'play' the entire scene of action over any period of time - the 10-20-year past or for that matter the near future...
Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 1/28/98
RecID: DesignDesign.stephene.schwartz.RudolfHusar
How about some artistry?
The image is very beautifull and, I guess, meaningful for the program. I particularly appreciate the two polar 3D cloud covers, it's impressive. In fact, I have only two comments which you will think may be not very important:

1) there are some misleading colors over the North African deserts. I have the feeling that some very desertic regions are filled with grey or white like clouds certainly because of the specific NDVI values;

2) If you look at the cover of Nature with our Sahara Dust article, you will see that the "artists" of the journal have added sort of halos in the space around the Earth. I think that it might be interesting to test such effects on your image since I found it representative of how people imagine the Greenhouse effect or the Ozone layer. And I don't know how to express it, but I think that it reinforced the message to see the Earth surrounded and "trapped" like this...but I agree that it is very distant from scientific materials ! Well, it's up to you. It was funny, because the scientific editor of Nature sent me a mail to apologize for the graphical effect that he found unrealistic, and he was surprized when I answered that it is beautiful.

Submitted by Moulin Cyril on 1/25/98
RecID: Design.CyrilMoulin
Re: How about some artistry?
The white spots over North Africa roughly correspond to the location of smooth sandy areas in Africa. Evidently, the 'truecolor' RGB rendering of the SeaWiFS image (1.7mb) is not quite true. Should it be a bit more yellow?

So, your experience is that for presentations to the informed public it is OK to 'enhance' the images to make a point. I was hoping to use only satellite-sensed data and to enhance the image by false color, exaggerated height, elimination of some cloud features and similar tricks.

Submitted by Husar Rudolf on 1/28/98
RecID: DesignDesign.CyrilMoulin.RudolfHusar
Earth image: confuses or illuminates?
My reaction to the image of Planet Earth was that it serves he purpose of attracting attention, but would confuse the public. False colors are not easily understood - perhaps that is what we want - and I like a realistic and very detailed image that people come up close and inspect for features they relate to - like home and favorite vacation place, etc. If the image is not going to attempt to be a "map" then the door is open to use color and strange attractors.
Submitted by Harriss Robert on 1/20/98
RecID: Design.RobertHarriss

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