The Arctic Ocean is experiencing rapid environmental change due to climate-induced warming, significantly altering underwater light conditions and the implications for benthic primary producers are uncertain. Through an iterative design process involving domain experts in Arctic marine science, we developed an interactive visualization tool that integrates large-scale remote sensing datasets to enable multi-scale exploration of temporal light dynamics. The tool features a geospatial map for regional and local analysis, a heatmap for visualizing monthly percentage changes across Arctic regions and fjords, and a line chart for examining and comparing temporal trends. Users can filter data based on minimum light requirements for four benthic primary producers and extract filtered subsets for further offline analysis. Qualitative evaluation with domain experts confirmed the tool’s effectiveness in supporting research tasks and revealed insights about changing patterns of light availability in the Arctic Ocean, which has significant implications for understanding how this sensitive ecosystem responds to rapid climate change.

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Interactive Visualization of the Changing Light Environment in the Arctic Ocean

  • Esben Bay Sørensen,
  • Jakob Kusnick,
  • Karl Attard,
  • Stefan Jänicke

摘要

The Arctic Ocean is experiencing rapid environmental change due to climate-induced warming, significantly altering underwater light conditions and the implications for benthic primary producers are uncertain. Through an iterative design process involving domain experts in Arctic marine science, we developed an interactive visualization tool that integrates large-scale remote sensing datasets to enable multi-scale exploration of temporal light dynamics. The tool features a geospatial map for regional and local analysis, a heatmap for visualizing monthly percentage changes across Arctic regions and fjords, and a line chart for examining and comparing temporal trends. Users can filter data based on minimum light requirements for four benthic primary producers and extract filtered subsets for further offline analysis. Qualitative evaluation with domain experts confirmed the tool’s effectiveness in supporting research tasks and revealed insights about changing patterns of light availability in the Arctic Ocean, which has significant implications for understanding how this sensitive ecosystem responds to rapid climate change.