Real-time 4D visualization of migratory insect dynamics within an integrated spatiotemporal system

This paper presents a new approach of spatiotemporally visualizing the simulation output of migratory insect dynamics and resultant vegetation changes in real-time. The visualization is capable of displaying simulated ecological phenomena in an intuitive manner, which allows research results to be easily understood by a wide range of users. In order to design a fast and efficient visualization technique, a simplified mathematical model is applied to intelligibly represent migrating groups of insects. In addition, impostors are used to accelerate rendering processes. The presented visualization method is implemented in an integrated spatiotemporal analysis system, which models, simulates and analyzes ecological phenomena such as insect migration through time at a variety of spatial resolutions.