COVE: A Visual Environment for Multidisciplinary Ocean Science Collaboration

Advances in cyber infrastructure for virtual observatories are poised to allow scientists from disparate fields to conduct experiments together, monitor large collections of instruments, and explore extensive archives of observed and simulated data. Such systems, however, focus on the `plumbing´ and frequently ignore the critical importance of rich, 3D interactive visualization, asset management, and collaboration necessary for interdisciplinary communication. The NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is typical of modern observatory-oriented projects-its goal is to transform ocean science from an expeditionary science to an observatory science. This paper explores the design of an interactive tool to support this new way of conducting ocean science. Working directly with teams of scientists, we designed and deployed the Collaborative Ocean Visualization Environment (COVE). We then carried out three field evaluations of COVE: a multi-month deployment with the scientists and engineers of an observatory design team and two deployments at sea as the primary planning and collaboration platform on expeditionary cruises to map observatory sites and study geothermal vents.