Vector fields simplification-a case study of visualizing climate modeling and simulation data sets

In our study of regional climate modeling and simulation, we frequently encounter vector fields that are crowded with large numbers of critical points. A critical point in a flow is where the vector field vanishes. While these critical points accurately reflect the topology of the vector fields, in our study only a subset of them is worth further investigation. We present a filtering technique based on the vorticity of the vector fields to eliminate the less interesting and sometimes sporadic critical points in a multiresolution fashion. The neighboring regions of the preserved features, which are characterized by strong shear and circulation, are potential locations of weather instability. We apply our feature filtering technique to a regional climate modeling data set covering East Asia in the summer of 1991.