Home
Welcome to WaterViz!
A real-time visualization of the water cycle at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.
This animation, powered by live streaming data, shows water movement through a small forested watershed in New Hampshire. Below is the watersheds’ live data transformed into music, tips for using the visualization, and a table with the most recent hour of data.
Tips for Using the Visualization
Explore the interactive features to get the most out of WaterViz.
Show/Hide Data
Use the show/hide data controls in the visualization to display actual data values alongside the animation.
Adjust Date
Navigate through historical data using the calendar or slider controls to explore water cycle patterns over time.
Listen to Stream Audio
Enable the stream audio slider at the bottom of the visualization to hear the sonification of water flow data in real time.
Streamflow
Bubbles flowing in the stream represent stream flow. Their quantity and speed reflect actual water movement data.
Soil Water
Particles moving through the soil represent soil water content, showing how moisture moves through the ground.
Precipitation
Precipitation appears as rain, sleet, or snow depending on the temperature in the visualization.
Evapotranspiration
Green lines show water moving from soil up through trees, then rising as a greenish mist into the air. This is evapotranspiration.
Solar Radiation
The sun peeking through the trees represents solar radiation. You’ll see it during the day and not at night.
Wind
The red leaf represents wind speed and direction, showing how air movement affects the water cycle.
Barometric Pressure
The stick in the stream indicates barometric pressure, which influences weather patterns and precipitation.
Snowpack
A thick white line on top of the soil that grows and shrinks as snowpack depth increases and decreases.
Current Conditions
The data that drive WaterViz come from a variety of sensors installed at Hubbard Brook.
An hourly processing routine gathers data from the different sensor files, merges these data, and updates the WaterViz database. More than a dozen measurements are used for WaterViz and related data visualization and sonification.
This table shows the most recent hour of data available.