ABSTRACT
Vector data is as frequently encountered, and as important, as scalar data. This chapter discusses a number of popular visualization methods for vector datasets: vector glyphs, vector color coding, displacement plots, stream objects, texture-based vector visualization, and the simplified representation of vector fields. A very important application domain for vector visualization is computational fluid dynamics. The chapter presents vector glyphs; one of the simplest and most popular techniques used to visualize such fields and introduces the displacement plot technique for visualizing vector data. It provides stream objects, which use integral techniques to construct paths in vector fields and describes a number of strategies for simplified representation of vector datasets. Helicity describes the extent to which the vector field exhibits a corkscrew-like local motion. Helicity is a conserved quantity if the flow is inviscid and homogeneous in density. Vector glyphs are probably the simplest, and fastest, and most popular technique for visualizing vector fields.
