Ricerc@Sapienza

The evaluation of an information visualization system is a complex activity, involving the understanding of both the visualization itself and the process that it is meant to support. Moreover, if the evaluation activity includes a task based user study, it requires a considerable effort, involving both conceptual (e.g., the definition of user tasks) and technical (e.g., logging of the relevant user actions while using the system) aspects.

In 1947, N. Herlofson proposed a modification to the 1884 Heinrich Hertz’s Emagram with the goal of getting more precise hand-made weather forecasts providing larger angles between isotherms and adiabats. Since then, the Herlofson’s nomogram has been used every day to visualize the results of about 800 radiosonde balloons that, twice a day, are globally released, sounding the atmosphere and reading pressure, altitude, temperature, dew point, and wind velocity. Relevant weather forecasts use such pieces of information to predict fog, cloud height, rain, thunderstorms, etc.