Animation and the role of map design in scientific visualization

Map animation is particularly attractive to earth system scientists who study large spatio-temporal data sets. In addition to the "visual variables' of static maps, animated maps are composed of three basic design elements - scene duration, rate of change between scenes, and scene order. The dynamic variables can be used to emphasize the location of a phenomenon, emphasize its attributes, or visualize change in its spatial, temporal, and attribute dimensions. -from Authors