What Can Visualization Research Do for Climate? A Workshop Report.

Earth, our home planet, is changing at an unprecedented rate due to human industrial activity. Data visualization can uniquely illuminate these complex transformations by revealing hidden patterns, thereby translating abstract data into compelling narratives and increased understanding. How can we harness visualization's full potential to inform and inspire our generation toward environmental awareness and stewardship? This article reports on insights and key challenges from the 2024 IEEE VIS workshop on climate action and sustainability whose submissions paint a rich picture of the current, yet still nascent, landscape of how the field of visualization can help empower people to take meaningful steps toward environmental stewardship.

Planetary-scale terrain composition.

Many interrelated planetary height map and surface image map data sets exist, and more data are collected each day. Broad communities of scientists require tools to compose these data interactively and explore them via real-time visualization. While related, these data sets are often unregistered with one another, having different projection, resolution, format, and type.