Exploratory Visualization of Saturn, Its Ring and Moons with SDvision

Since its insertion into orbit in 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has completed an extensive study of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. The wealth of high resolution images and data that it has sent back calls fort he development of dedicated interactive, immersive, multipurpose analysis and visualization tools. Alongside with observations, numerical simulations also provide new insights into the fundamental processes at stake in the formation of planetary systems. The SDvision graphical interface, developped in the context of IDL Object Graphics and intended primarily for the visualization of complex and massive astrophysical plasma simulations, has been extended to provide an interactive visualization of both numerical simulations and observations of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. The various functionalities offered by this tool in terms of exploration and navigation through these complex data are illustrated and discussed.