The PI proposes to develop the Chesapeake Bay Virtual Environment (CBVE), which will fuse 3D visualizations of numerically generated data into a large-scale, interactive virtual world. This modeling framework will incorporate runtime computational steering, interactive visualization, data ensonification , and wide area information dissemination capabilities. CBVE will support technology transfer, provide mentoring in coastal ecosystem science, and serve as a medium for information exchange by taking advantage of Internet-based media and complete World-Wide Web functionality. The use of a virtual world as a new paradigm of information exchange coupled with a World-Wide Web based information architecture will allow multidisciplinary, multi-institutional groups of scientists, educators, students and administrators to apply emerging high performance computing and communications technologies to the study of the country's largest estuarine ecosystem. CBVE will initially couple a working 3D circulation model of the Chesapeake Bay and adjoining shelf with working biological models for larvae of two commercially important species in Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tryannuas) and the blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus). The ultimate goal is visualization of the entire model output in an immersive, interactive environment.
