Visualizing the magnitude and direction of three-dimensional vector fields

An algorithm is presented for plotting the magnitude and direction of a vector field described over a triangular mesh. Once the critical points (zeros) of the vector field are found, the plotting procedure becomes a function of the paradigms of the viewer. The algorithm is developed for any three-dimensional surface represented by a triangular grid. The method uses color-shaded magnitude contours and directed vector lines to characterize a vector field. The algorithm was tested by plotting the far-zone field vector direction and magnitude.<>