Microparticles in the San Francisco Bay
MAT 259, 2021
Will Sheppard
Concept
This project aims to visualize the distribution of microparticles in an aquatic system. The data was collected by the San Francisco Estuary Institute. It describes the size, shape, color, material, and method of collection of microparticles sampled from the San Francisco Bay during several trials between 2014 and 2018. A few slides explaining the data can be found here
. My objective was to display these particles in 3D space in a way that makes the color, size and shape of the particles apparent. Since the widths of these particles can vary from above 100mm to below 0.1mm, the visualization must make particles at several length scales easily visible. One possibility would be to plot the particle widths on a log scale, but this hides the true scale of each particle. Instead, I opted to visualize the smallest particles close to the origin of 3D space and place the larger particles further out. This preserves width proportions and makes particles of a certain length scale visible at a certain magnification using PeasyCam.
. My objective was to display these particles in 3D space in a way that makes the color, size and shape of the particles apparent. Since the widths of these particles can vary from above 100mm to below 0.1mm, the visualization must make particles at several length scales easily visible. One possibility would be to plot the particle widths on a log scale, but this hides the true scale of each particle. Instead, I opted to visualize the smallest particles close to the origin of 3D space and place the larger particles further out. This preserves width proportions and makes particles of a certain length scale visible at a certain magnification using PeasyCam.
Query
There is no query since the data was collected from the San Francisco Estuary Institute. The data can be found below, and the accompanying report can be found here
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Preliminary sketches
My first sketch depicts particles arranged in a cube with axes representing length, width, and date of collected. Since the dates are discrete, the design is layered like a lasagna.
The design for the final version is motivated by Cary Huang's "Scale of the Universe 2
" which displays a set of objects ranging from the smallest comprehensible lengths in quantum physics to the size of the observable universe.
The design for the final version is motivated by Cary Huang's "Scale of the Universe 2
" which displays a set of objects ranging from the smallest comprehensible lengths in quantum physics to the size of the observable universe.
Final result
All particles with nonempty length and width data are plotted. The width scale in this image is around 1mm, where orders of magnitude are marked by colored spheres. The density of particles increases at smaller scales. The menu on the lift toggles the morphology and color of particles.
All particles are plotted with the interaction menu hidden. Most of the particles with width below 0.1mm are fibers that appear as thin strips.
All particles characterized as fragments are plotted at a width scale below 1.0mm.
All particles that are characterized as black are plotted. Many of these particles are rubber, ash, plastic, or not identifiable.
All particles are plotted with the interaction menu hidden. Most of the particles with width below 0.1mm are fibers that appear as thin strips.
All particles characterized as fragments are plotted at a width scale below 1.0mm.
All particles that are characterized as black are plotted. Many of these particles are rubber, ash, plastic, or not identifiable.
Code