Hierarchical navigation interface: leveraging multiple coordinated views for level-of-detail multiresolution volume rendering of large scientific data sets

We present a new hierarchical navigation interface for level-of-detail selection and rendering of multiresolution volumetric data. The interface consists of multiple coordinated views based on concepts from information visualization as well as scientific visualization literature. With key features such as brushing and linking, and focus and context, it gives the users full control over the level-of-detail selection when navigating through large multiresolution data hierarchies. The navigation interface can also be integrated with traditional level-of-detail selection methods for more effective visual data exploration. We test the utility and effectiveness of this hierarchical navigation interface on a couple of large-scale three-dimensional steady and time-varying data sets.