gViz : Visualization and Computational Steering on the Grid

Visualization and computational steering are fundamental aspects of Grid computing. Visualization is important in the analysis and interpretation of the results generated by large scale simulation; computational steering enables effective use to be made of interactive access to high performance computing. This paper describes work in the gViz e-Science project: a reference model based on the dataflow paradigm to underpin the work; an XML application to describe visualization processing in a general way; and extensions of existing visualization systems to support visualization and computational steering in Grid computing environments. The work is illustrated through two demonstrators: one an environmental application, the other an application in computational biology which aims to understand heart abnormalities.