Cosmography and Data Visualization
  Cosmography, the study and making of maps of the universe or cosmos, is a
field where visual representation benefits from modern three-dimensional
visualization techniques and media. At the extragalactic distance scales,
visualization is contributing in understanding the complex structure of the
local universe, in terms of spatial distribution and flows of galaxies and dark
matter. In this paper, we report advances in the field of extragalactic
cosmography obtained using the SDvision visualization software in the context
of the Cosmicflows Project. Here, multiple visualization techniques are applied
to a variety of data products: catalogs of galaxy positions and galaxy peculiar
velocities, reconstructed velocity field, density field, gravitational
potential field, velocity shear tensor viewed in terms of its eigenvalues and
eigenvectors, envelope surfaces enclosing basins of attraction. These
visualizations, implemented as high-resolution images, videos, and interactive
viewers, have contributed to a number of studies: the cosmography of the local
part of the universe, the nature of the Great Attractor, the discovery of the
boundaries of our home supercluster of galaxies Laniakea, the mapping of the
cosmic web, the study of attractors and repellers.
