article

Simulating the dynamics of auroral phenomena

Authors:

Gladimir V. G. Baranoski,

Ian BellAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), Volume 24, Issue 1

Pages 37 - 59

https://doi.org/10.1145/1037957.1037960

Published: 01 January 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Simulating natural phenomena has always been a focal point for computer graphics research. Its importance goes beyond the production of appealing presentations, since research in this area can contribute to the scientific understanding of complex natural processes. The natural phenomena, known as the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, are geomagnetic phenomena of impressive visual characteristics and remarkable scientific interest. Aurorae present a complex behavior that arises from interactions between plasma (hot, ionized gases composed of ions, electrons, and neutral atoms) and Earth's electromagnetic fields. Previous work on the visual simulation of auroral phenomena have focused on static physical models of their shape, modeled from primitives, like sine waves. In this article, we focus on the dynamic behavior of the aurora, and we present a physically-based model to perform 3D visual simulations. The model takes into account the physical parameters and processes directly associated with plasma flow, and can be extended to simulate the dynamics of other plasma phenomena as well as astrophysical phenomena. The partial differential equations associated with these processes are solved using a complete multigrid implementation of the electromagnetic interactions, leading to a simulation of the shape and motion of the auroral displays. In order to illustrate the applicability of our model, we provide simulation sequences rendered using a distributed forward mapping approach.

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Cited By

Ishikawa TNakazato RMatsuda I(2019)Procedural Animation of Aurora and its Optimization for Keyframe AnimationProceedings of the 2019 3rd International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Control10.1145/3386164.3389098(1-8)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386164.3389098
Kojima TTakeuchi RWatanabe TMikami K(2013)Visual Simulation of Aurora based on Feature Motion特徴的な動き方を考慮したオーロラのビジュアルシミュレーションThe Journal of the Society for Art and Science10.3756/artsci.12.2412:1(24-35)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2013
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Dai QYang XWang CMagnenat-Thalmann NPan Z(2013)Interactive smoke simulation and rendering on the GPUProceedings of the 12th ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and Its Applications in Industry10.1145/2534329.2534358(177-182)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2013
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Index Terms

Simulating the dynamics of auroral phenomena
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Computer vision
      1. Image and video acquisition
        3D imaging
  2. Computer graphics
    1. Animation

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cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics Volume 24, Issue 1

January 2005

179 pages

ISSN:0730-0301

EISSN:1557-7368

DOI:10.1145/1037957

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Copyright © 2005 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 2005

Published in TOG Volume 24, Issue 1

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386164.3389098
Kojima TTakeuchi RWatanabe TMikami K(2013)Visual Simulation of Aurora based on Feature Motion特徴的な動き方を考慮したオーロラのビジュアルシミュレーションThe Journal of the Society for Art and Science10.3756/artsci.12.2412:1(24-35)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2013
https://doi.org/10.3756/artsci.12.24
Dai QYang XWang CMagnenat-Thalmann NPan Z(2013)Interactive smoke simulation and rendering on the GPUProceedings of the 12th ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and Its Applications in Industry10.1145/2534329.2534358(177-182)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2534329.2534358
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Ishikawa TYue YIwasaki KDobashi YNishita TNishita T(2011)Modeling of aurora borealis using the observed dataProceedings of the 27th Spring Conference on Computer Graphics10.1145/2461217.2461220(13-16)Online publication date: 28-Apr-2011
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