Extracting the Magnetopause Structure Based on Direct Volume Visualization Methods

doi:10.11871/jfdc.issn.2096-742X.2025.04.007

Abstract

Abstract:

[Objective] Visualization is an important way to effectively analyze the magnetosphere configuration, and it is of great significance to the understanding of the energy exchange mechanism between solar wind and magnetosphere. [Methods] The boundary points should be located and then triangular facets are constructed before drawing the three-dimensional magnetopause based on the streamline method while the interior structure of the magnetopause is invisible. This paper attempts to introduce a direct volume visualization method without locating boundary points to perspectively display the magnetopause structure, and designs transfer functions based on the value rate distribution map and k-means++ algorithm. [Results] The experiment utilized five features, including plasma density gradient, magnetic induction intensity gradient, and so on from PPMLR-MHD simulation data, and successfully reconstructed the complete three-dimensional structures of the magnetopause and bow shock. Among these, the visualization of the magnetopause based on solar wind density gradient and magnetic induction intensity gradient yields clearer results. [Conclusions] The results demonstrate that the magnetopause direct volume visualization method proposed in this study offers more robust information and spatial representation capabilities compared to geometric rendering approaches, providing valuable insights for subsequent visualization of other structures within the magnetosphere.

Key words: three dimensional magnetopause, direct volume visualization, transfer function, PPMLR-MHD simulation data, solar wind streamline

ZHONG Jia, ZOU Ziming. Extracting the Magnetopause Structure Based on Direct Volume Visualization Methods[J]. Frontiers of Data and Computing, 2025, 7(4): 79-88, https://cstr.cn/32002.14.jfdc.CN10-1649/TP.2025.04.007.

Figures/Tables 6

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梯度值所属区间	k₁	k₂	k₃	k₄	k₅
$\left\|\nabla f\right\|$>5.0×10¹¹	6.9380×10¹¹	1.3117×10¹²	2.0620×10¹²	2.5465×10¹²	3.4324×10¹²
$\left\|\nabla f\right\|$≤5.0×10¹¹	5.5123×10⁶	1.1270×10⁸	2.3311×10⁸	6.8177×10⁸	4.6963×10⁹