Abstract: A vertical reflectivity composition method for weather radar display is disclosed. Rapid visual updates from incomplete NEXRAD Doppler radar volume scans advance the current state of the art for real-time tactical awareness purposes. Continuous groups of plan-position indicator (PPI) scan radials are composited onto a base array of constant per-radial azimuth defined by the initial scan of the volume. A novel variable-altitude plan-position indicator (VAPPI) method is employed to interpolate reflectivity echoes according to surface proximity within the VAPPI volume. Dynamic adjustments to the VAPPI vertical extremum adopt the maximum detected height of an adaptable reflectivity isosurface. Linear azimuthal resampling endeavors to correct angular disjunction between new composited radials and the composite base array. Legacy resolution one-degree-width radials are bisected to maintain original high-definition resolution of the half-degree azimuthal width composite radials.

Abstract: A method for rendering animated contour lines in real-time on a graphics processing unit employs a two-stage rendering technique using two separate pixel shaders and three texture stages. A dynamically generated one-dimensional color key lookup texture is generated and passed to the first pixel shader along with two texture datasets which are blended according to a temporal interpolation fraction for the creation of visual stripes over the dataset which alternate color at predetermined contour values. The result of this first pass is rendered into a screen-defined texture and sent to a secondary pixel shader which performs a simplistic edge-detection algorithm to extract width-normalized contour lines from the edges formed by the striping shader in the first render pass. The edge-detection shader receives user-controllable variables to alter contour thickness, color, border color, and smoothness (anti-aliasing) before presenting the finished image to the graphics display device.