ABSTRACT
Spatial data visualization, under which the field of scientific visualization falls, assumes that the data has an implicit or explicit spatial or spatiotemporal attribute. This constraint facilitates both the creation and interpretation of the visualization, as there is an intuitive, and often straightforward, mapping of the data attributes to graphical attributes of the entities conveying the information in the visualization. As our visual perception system is constantly receiving and interpreting imagery of the physical phenomena surrounding us, it is quite natural to process the same form of imagery on a computer screen. The main differences are:
• In viewing the world surrounding us, we are not constrained by a twodimensional, discrete, low-resolution projection.
