Visual Analytics for Simulation Ensembles

We often simulate multiple variations of the same model - a simulation ensemble - to better understand intricate physical phenomena. The analysis of complex simulation ensembles represents a grand challenge which is approached by both computational and interactive, visual methods. We describe how modern visual analytics helps to analyze simulation ensemble data. A clever combination of computational and interactive methods supports the simulation expert to gain deeper insight into the data and into the physical phenomenon that is represented by the ensemble. An analysis environment that combines interactive visualization and computational analysis provides unique advantages for the exploration and analysis of complex ensemble data. It helps the domain expert to efficiently cope with analysis tasks, in particular when they are only partially defined. In this work, we describe the basics of interactive visual analysis, several approaches to interactive ensemble steering, and means for results quantification and analysis reproducibility.