Visualising large-scale geodynamic simulations: How to Dive into Earth's Mantle with Virtual Reality

Precise knowledge of the forces acting at the base of tectonic plates is of fundamental importance, but models of mantle dynamics are still often qualitative in nature to date. One particular problem is that we cannot access the deep interior of our planet and can therefore not make direct in situ measurements of the relevant physical parameters. Fortunately, modern software and powerful high-performance computing infrastructures allow us to generate complex three-dimensional models of the time evolution of mantle flow through large-scale numerical simulations.

In this project, we aim at visualizing the resulting convective patterns that occur thousands of kilometres below our feet and to make them "accessible" using high-end virtual reality techniques.

Models with several hundred million grid cells are nowadays possible using the modern supercomputing facilities, such as those available at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. These models provide quantitative estimates on the inaccessible parameters, such as buoyancy and temperature, as well as predictions of the associated gravity field and seismic wavefield that can be tested against Earth observations.

3-D visualizations of the computed physical parameters allow us to inspect the models such as if one were actually travelling down into the Earth. This way, convective processes that occur thousands of kilometres below our feet are virtually accessible by combining the simulations with high-end VR techniques.

The large data set used here poses severe challenges for real time visualization, because it cannot fit into graphics memory, while requiring rendering with strict deadlines. This raises the necessity to balance the amount of displayed data versus the time needed for rendering it.

As a solution, we introduce a rendering framework and describe our workflow that allows us to visualize this geoscientific dataset. Our example exceeds 16 TByte in size, which is beyond the capabilities of most visualization tools. To display this dataset in real-time, we reduce and declutter the dataset through isosurfacing and mesh optimization techniques.

Our rendering framework relies on multithreading and data decoupling mechanisms that allow to upload data to graphics memory while maintaining high frame rates. The final visualization application can be executed in a CAVE installation as well as on head mounted displays such as the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. The latter devices will allow for viewing our example on-site at the EGU conference.