
A general computational steering system has been developed to carry
out simulations on parallel computers and visualize them remotely in
real-time. The steering system is extremely lightweight, portable,
robust and easy to use. As a demonstration of the capabilities of
this system, a parallel wake-vortex simulation code has been written
and integrated with our Virtual Reality setup via a separate graphics
client. The coupling of computational steering of our parallel
simulation with VR setup provides us with near real-time visualization
of the wake-vortex data in stereoscopic mode. It opens a new way for
the future Air-Traffic Control systems to help reduce the capacity
constraint and safety problems resulting from the wake-vortex hazard
that are plaguing the airports today. At a more basic level, the
ability to get "immersed" in the complex solution as it unfolds using
the depth cue of the stereoscopic display and the real-time nature of
the computational steering system opens a whole new dimension to the
scientists for interacting with their simulations.
