Colored Visualisation for Numerical Modelling

Abstract

In this paper scalar and vector data are visualised by suited colour scales based on perceptive and uniform colour models. Using opportune colour scales, colour information is created from the two-dimensional scalar data computed at different time steps. Direction and magnitude of computed vector data are represented employing circular colour look-up tables (LKT). In a scientific computing environment focused on analysis and interpretation of physical phenomena, the coloured visualisation of data generated by numerical simulations represents a fundamental fashion of knowledge. The colour, in fact, can help the researcher to analyse and interpret information present in computed data in a fast and immediate way. The colour human perception is a complex process, which includes physiological, psychophysical, psychological and physical aspects. A colour model (colour space) is a way adopted to represent and describe a colour using three co-ordinates. We visualise the results obtained by a finite difference method applied to the solution of 2D shallow water equations for the simulation of water circulation in natural basin: the San Pablo Bay. We show solutions of the two-dimensional shallow water equations (SWEs), that is, solutions of quasi linear hyperbolic partial differential equations, governing the water circulation in a basin with spatial dimensions significantly greater than the water depth