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Interactive High-Performance Visualization for Astronomy and Cosmology

Eva Sciacca, Nicola Tuccari, Umer Arshad, Fabio Pitari, Giuseppa Muscianisi, Emiliano Tramontana

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of petabyte-scale data in Astronomy and Cosmology by enabling interactive, high-performance visualization directly on HPC resources. It introduces and implements an integrated workflow between VisIVO Server and Cineca's InterActive Computing (IAC) service, delivering GPU-enabled visualization through browser-based Jupyter notebooks. Central to the approach are Python wrappers that expose VisIVO CLI tools (Importer, Filter, Viewer) inside an IAC-enabled, off-screen rendering environment, facilitating reproducible and interactive exploratory analysis. The authors validate the pipeline with GADGET-based cosmological simulations, demonstrating three workflows and accompanying notebooks that showcase data import, filtering, density and volume rendering, all accessible in an interactive, notebook-driven setting with immediate image availability in the web UI.

Abstract

The exponential growth of data in Astrophysics and Cosmology demands scalable computational tools and intuitive interfaces for analysis and visualization. In this work, we present an innovative integration of the VisIVO scientific visualization framework with the InterActive Computing (IAC) service at Cineca, enabling interactive, high-performance visual workflows directly within HPC environments. Through seamless integration into Jupyter-based science gateways, users can now access GPU-enabled compute nodes to perform complex 3D visualizations using VisIVO via custom Python wrappers and preconfigured interactive notebooks. We demonstrate how this infrastructure simplifies access to advanced HPC resources, enhances reproducibility, and accelerates exploratory workflows in astronomical research. Our approach has been validated through a set of representative use cases involving large-scale simulations from the GADGET code, highlighting the effectiveness of this system in visualizing the large-scale structure of the Universe. This work exemplifies how science gateways can bridge domain-specific tools and advanced infrastructures, fostering user-centric, scalable, and reproducible research environments.

Interactive High-Performance Visualization for Astronomy and Cosmology

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of petabyte-scale data in Astronomy and Cosmology by enabling interactive, high-performance visualization directly on HPC resources. It introduces and implements an integrated workflow between VisIVO Server and Cineca's InterActive Computing (IAC) service, delivering GPU-enabled visualization through browser-based Jupyter notebooks. Central to the approach are Python wrappers that expose VisIVO CLI tools (Importer, Filter, Viewer) inside an IAC-enabled, off-screen rendering environment, facilitating reproducible and interactive exploratory analysis. The authors validate the pipeline with GADGET-based cosmological simulations, demonstrating three workflows and accompanying notebooks that showcase data import, filtering, density and volume rendering, all accessible in an interactive, notebook-driven setting with immediate image availability in the web UI.

Abstract

The exponential growth of data in Astrophysics and Cosmology demands scalable computational tools and intuitive interfaces for analysis and visualization. In this work, we present an innovative integration of the VisIVO scientific visualization framework with the InterActive Computing (IAC) service at Cineca, enabling interactive, high-performance visual workflows directly within HPC environments. Through seamless integration into Jupyter-based science gateways, users can now access GPU-enabled compute nodes to perform complex 3D visualizations using VisIVO via custom Python wrappers and preconfigured interactive notebooks. We demonstrate how this infrastructure simplifies access to advanced HPC resources, enhances reproducibility, and accelerates exploratory workflows in astronomical research. Our approach has been validated through a set of representative use cases involving large-scale simulations from the GADGET code, highlighting the effectiveness of this system in visualizing the large-scale structure of the Universe. This work exemplifies how science gateways can bridge domain-specific tools and advanced infrastructures, fostering user-centric, scalable, and reproducible research environments.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. VisIVO Server
  3. Data Preparation
  4. Data Processing (Optional)
  5. Data Visualization
  6. InterActive Computing service (IAC)
  7. Methodology
  8. VisIVO wrappers
  9. Deployment
  10. Use Case Applications
  11. Workflows description
  12. Workflow 1
  13. Workflow 2
  14. Workflow 3
  15. Interactive Notebooks and Rendering results
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: VisIVO Server modular architecture and basic workflow involving importer, filter and view operations
  • Figure 2: InterActive Computing service implementation at Cineca
  • Figure 3: Jupyter notebook running VisIVO via web browser on a compute node of Galileo 100 cluster
  • Figure 4: VisIVO volume rendering of HALO particles of GADGET simulation test output