A still from a visualization created by a team of researchers from the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) showing the dramatic evolution of Hurricane Katrina.

The AVL team, located at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Urbana, Ill., created the visualization based on computations of the hurricane's evolution that were created by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The AVL team transformed the terabytes of data into a striking, time-evolving animation of the 36-hour period when the storm gained energy over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and heading for New Orleans.

The animation is part of a full-length planetarium film called "Dynamic Earth," that explores the inner workings of the Earth's climate engine. The film includes visualizations based on satellite monitoring data and advanced supercomputing simulations that explore the workings of the Earth's climate, following a trail of energy that flows from the sun into the atmosphere, oceans and the biosphere. Both NCSA and NCAR are supported by the National Science Foundation.

[NCSA AVL contributors: Donna Cox, Robert Patterson, Stuart Levy, Alex Betts, Matthew Hall. NCAR team members: Wei Wang, Ryan Torn, Jimy Dudhia, Chris Davis.] (Date of Image: 2011)

Credit: Advanced Visualization Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications