Interactive visualization of ocean unsteady flow data based on dynamic adaptive pathline

The visualization of flow fields is crucial for comprehending and explaining spatio-temporal geographic processes that encompass diverse fluid phenomena in the ocean. This study presents an interactive visualization algorithm designed for the spatio-temporal correlated ocean unsteady flow field utilizing dynamic adaptive pathlines. The algorithm based on the pathline space–time continuum framework, provides enhanced space–time continuity and computational efficiency, and it modify the pathline length interactively by adjusting the correlation coefficient. Furthermore, an interactive transfer function has been created to extract different characteristics of the 2D/3D flow field from the ambient current. Using the high-resolution 2D/3D ocean current datasets GLORYS12V1 and OMEGA3D to apply and test, the experimental results illustrate that the pathline-based visualization algorithm, as opposed to the streamline-based approach, can effectively represent a wide array of marine phenomena in real-time with improved clarity. Moreover, it has the capability to dynamically capture intricate features within complex flow fields.