Close collaboration with other scientific fields is seen as an important goal for the visualization community by leading researchers in visualization. Yet, engaging in a scientific collaboration can be challenging. Physical sciences, with its array of research directions, provide many exciting challenges for a visualization scientist which in turn create ample possibilities for collaboration. We present the first survey of its kind that provides a comprehensive view on existing work on visualization for the physical sciences. We introduce a novel classification scheme based on application area, data dimensionality and main challenge addressed and apply this classification scheme to each contribution from the literature. Our classification highlights mature areas in visualization for the physical sciences and suggests directions for future work. Our survey serves as a useful starting point for those interested in visualization for the physical sciences, namely astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences and physics.

Abstract — In this paper, we present a framework for simulating light transport in three dimensional tissue with inhomogeneous scattering properties. Our approach employs a computational model to simulate light scattering in tissue through the finite element solution of the diffusion equation. Although our model handles both visible and non-visible wavelengths, we especially focus on the interaction of near infra-red (NIR) light with tissue. Since most human tissue is permeable to NIR light, tools to non-invasively image tumors, blood vasculature and monitor blood oxygenation levels are being constructed. We apply this model to a numerical phantom to reproduce visually the images generated by these real world tools. Therefore, in addition to enabling inverse design of detector instruments, our computational tools produce physically-accurate visualizations of subsurface structures. Index Terms — volume rendering, near infrared, biological tissue, light scattering I.

Close collaboration with other scientific fields is an important goal for the visualization community. Yet engaging in a scientific collaboration can be challenging. The physical sciences, namely astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences and physics, exhibit an extensive range of research directions, providing exciting challenges for visualization scientists and creating ample possibilities for collaboration. We present the first survey of its kind that provides a comprehensive view of existing work on visualization for the physical sciences. We introduce novel classification schemes based on application area, data dimensionality and main challenge addressed, and apply these classifications to each contri-bution from the literature. Our survey helps in understanding the status of current research and serves as a useful starting point for those interested in visualization for the physical sciences. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.4 [COMPUTER GRAPHICS]: Graphics Utilities— Application packages