\documentstyle[helvetica]{article}
\oddsidemargin=0in
\textwidth=5.5in
\raggedright
\parindent=0pt
\begin{document}
\title{Applications of AVS in the Earth Sciences at Oxford}
\author{Keith Refson \and Andy Bingham\and Graham Robertson\and Tom
Martel\\
Department of Earth Sciences\\Parks Road\\Oxford OX1 3PR\\UK}
\date{\vspace{0.01in}}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
We present case studies of the practical use of AVS for selected
geophysical applications.  The examples arose from the research
activities of the Earth Sciences Department at Oxford and although no
claim is made for their representativeness of geology or geophysics
they do yield some interesting tips which may be of wider value.

The three chosen examples are:

\begin{description}
\item[Data with boundaries:] Different ways of handling field data
defined only on a prescribed domain (in this case the lower mantle)
are compared. The merits and disadvantages of uniform, scattered and
curvilinear representations are discussed.  Our experience shows that
the most important consideration is the behaviour of the chosen
visualization technique and algorithm at the boundary.

\item[Application building:] One of the most powerful features of AVS
is the ability to build canned applications for inexperienced users.
We demonstrate a viewer for 2D gridded data files which has been
extensively used as a routine tool with a shallow learning curve.  We
discuss the factors influencing its design, particularly the need to
write a replacement module for ``field-to-mesh'' which adds the
required quantitative features.

\item[Time-dependent data:] This example demonstrates some ways to
handle time-dependent field data from an ocean circulation model.
\end{description}

\end{abstract}
\end{document}
