Subject: VisAD numerical data model

From: Bill Hibbard <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 06:57:39 -0500

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VisAD is a Java class library for interactive and collaborative
visualization and analysis of numerical data, using Java RMI,
Java3D and Java2D.

>From the point of view of the java-for-cse list, its most
interesting feature may be its general numerical data model.

This can be applied to virtually any numerical data and
integrates a variety of metadata into computational and
visualization operations on data.  Metadata include
mathematical types (a sort of data schema), units, coordinate
systems, sampling geometries and topologies, missing data
indicators and error estimates.  Unit conversions, coordinate
transforms and resampling are done implicitly as necessary
(although applications can control resampling and coordinate
transform algorithms by defining appropriate class extensions).
Missing data indicators and error estimates are propogated
in computations.

The system has a general design for importing data, currently
applied to netCDF, HDF-EOS, FITS, Vis5D, GIF and JPEG files.

A VisAD application consists of an event driven network of
data, display, user interface and computational objects.
These may be distributed around the Internet through use of
Java RMI.

For more information, see:

  http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visad.html

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Bill Hibbard
[email-masked]