The Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (CNMOC) and its academic partners of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), Mississippi State University (MSU) and Jackson State University support the High Performance Visualization Center Initiative. The High Performance Visualization Center Initiative strives to create the infrastructure for a center in which DoD researchers may conduct their research without regard to geographical location interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, and accessing information in digital libraries. In partnership with the other members with the High Performance Visualization Center Initiative, JSU will perform the following tasks: Collaberative Scientific Visualization, Distance Training/Education, Complex Information Presentation and Delivery, Development of Hierarchical Storage Management and Shared File Systems Capabilities.

The Visualization Core Laboratory / GIS Remote Core Laboratories were established to bond existing capabilities and talents in the areas of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Scientific Visualization (Sci-Viz) and co-locate them in a centralized facility. This created an infrastructure of technology, data, people and institutional linkages that enables the discovery, evaluation and application of geospatial and visual data for adding value to research across various areas and disciplines.

The GIS/RS laboratories support the development, enhancement and transfer of GIS/RS applications, make geospatial data available and accessible and promote research and development innovation among users. The Sci-Viz laboratory supports the need of scientists and researchers relative to modeling, program application development and production of high quality advanced visualizations for all fields or disciplines. The TLGVRC addresses human resource development to ensure a skilled workforce which is vital for sustenance of any high level technology activity.

Instrumentation

• Equipment

Fakespace Reconfigurable Advanced Visualization Equipment (RAVE); SGI Onyx 3200 server; SGI Octane server; seven SGI O2 workstations; scanners; color/B&W plotters; PCs and workstations; Virtual Network Computing; Multiprocessor Sun servers.

• Software

Extensive digitization and data conversion software; image processing (Erdas, Envi, etc.); GIS software (Arc/Info, ArcView, ArcMap, etc.); RDBMS products; multiple operating systems (Windows, UNIX and LINUX); Vvisualization software (CAVE Library, VR Juggler, MultiGen Creator, MultiGen Vega, Access Grid Toolkit, Alias/Wavefront Maya).