An ocean of gradients - toward a 3D mapping of high resolution oceanographic data

The joint CIESM/CSM/IHO Workshop on 3D mapping and visualization of high resolution marine data will take place at IHO, in Monaco from 19 to 21 March 2024, at the occasion of the Monaco Ocean Week.

The workshop will tackle issues related to 3D visual of scientific datasets.

It will especially focus on the way to treat marine environmental data (including microbial, genomic and biomolecular data) associated to steep chemical / physical gradients, which are typical of marine ‘extreme’ and ‘subsurface’ environments.

Within this frame, available datasets are often very fragmented and require modeling efforts to fill gaps / obtain more consistent layers for 3D data rendering.

Invited expertise will deal with:

• Managing data on spatial distribution of microbial, physical and geo-chemical parameters;

• Dispersion models (i.e. simulating molecular diffusion superimposed on the advective transport induced by the fluid flow);

• Biochemical models (i.e. allowing quantifying biotic versus abiotic processes);

• Processing geo-localized data for 3D visualization (incl. high performance volume rendering technologies).

The workshop will be the opportunity for our team, to present the CIESM data 3D visualization prototype and, later on, following the participants’ inputs, to advance with its implementation. Such CIESM tool, under development, is open source and will be freely available on the web for scientific users to map their own data.

Specific expertise in global metagenomic data will also add a valuable input to the brainstorming discussions.

The round-table meeting will take place in a convivial, informal, yet intensive format. Attendance is upon invitation only and restricted to 12-14 international experts.

During the first two days, each participant will dispose 40-45 minutes to develop her/ his ideas via an interactive presentation (questions are encouraged during the talks) and will have many other opportunities to intervene during the various meeting discussions.

The second half of the workshop will focus on key issues selected mid-way by all participants for brainstorming. The workshop outcomes will allow to progress on data analysis and interpretation helping make data more understandable and useful.

Participants to the workshop will later submit a 7-8 pages illustrated article reflecting their research / originality and will be published in the CIESM Workshop Monograph n°53 and to contribute to a collective synthetic introduction.