Pre- filtering of turbulent vector fields in the geodynamo

This paper introduces a new and effective approach for visualizing complex magnetic fields. The paper defines a local approach for measuring the degree of local directional change of magnetic field vectors and uses this measure to generate volume visualizations that emphasize areas with highest values of locally integrated directional change of a vector field. The presented method was motivated by the need for having more effective tools supporting interactive exploration of the intricate magnetic field behavior captured in extremely large simulated data of the Earth’s magnetic field. Of particular interest is a better understanding of the causal relationship between the Earth’s convection phenomena (geodynamo) and the induced magnetic field, with high turbulent behavior in the Earth’s core. The introduced local filter-based approach for visualization leads to a significant reduction in the amount of scientifically relevant data to be focused on in a rendering, and it therefore accelerates the overall scientific exploratory process. The viability of the method is demonstrated by specific examples.