Visual Study of the Benguela Upwelling System using Pathline Predicates

Abstract

Due to the nutrient-rich water transported to the upper layer of the ocean, coastal upwelling systems are regions especially important for marine life and fishery. In this work, we focus on a visual analysis of the spatio-temporal structure of the Benguela upwelling system using pathline predicates. Based on the 3D flow field from an ocean model simulation, we first derive space- filling trajectories covering the full model grid. From these, we select and visualize pathlines related to upwelling. In a second step, we derive a 3D scalar field representing the pathline density, which is visualized using volume rendering techniques. Further analyses of the pathlines show a distinct annual cycle in the upwelling activity, which fits well to observation-based analyses found in literature.