Severe Storm Visualization and Dr. Richardson's Lecture

Though the severe storm visualization may have been adequate for its time, looking at it now, it is evident that there are problems with the visualization. One major problem was that there was no indication that the storm had been stretched vertically so that the viewer would be able to see the details easier. Had the visualization explained this somehow, it would be much clearer. Another problem was that the narrator often referred to directions; however, the compass was only present for the first few frames of the visualization. Instead, the compass should always be visible. Additionally, the contrast between the plane and the lines (that created a grid) was too great and made the visualization slightly distracting. Further, there was also a problem with the color map that showed where the water density of a cross section of the storm was the greatest. The use of the archaic rainbow color map took away from the information the map attempted to convey. By using other color schemes on the map, the color map could be greatly improved. A major reason for all these problems is that when the visualization was created, the computing ability was much weaker than it is now. Computers were slower, and creating these types of visualizations required frame by frame creation that took a long time. Likewise, early visualizations of molecules were not perfect either. In the early 2D models of molecules, it was difficult to get a sense of depth, which was important in perceiving molecular interactions. In addition, though the earlier 3D models of molecules showed some type of depth, it was difficult to translate the models onto scientific journals and other print.
These types of early visualizations were, of course, very helpful to their respective fields in that they provided additional information that would be lacking otherwise. Since the 1980's, since our computing power has increased by a lot, we are able to create more sophisticated visualizations in much less time; back then, people were forced to draw each frame to create a visualization. Dr. Richardson's visualizations of molecules were different than the visualization fo the storm. For example, Dr. Richardson's visualizations changed due to molecular interactions, whereas the storm visualization was constant and was not altered for any other reason.