RipViz: Finding Rip Currents by Learning Pathline Behavior

Abstract

Rip currents are deadly but remain invisible to many: We propose a feature detection method, RipViz, to make these invisible rip currents visible. RipViz highlights locations of rip currents as a red region. This region is determined by finding seed points that produce pathline sequences deviating from normal ocean flow. Non-experts and experts alike can use RipViz to visualize rip currents.