Mountain Weather Visualization

An OpenGL-based visualization of mountain weather phenomena, including air mass movement, orographic lifting, cloud formation, and precipitation.

Features

• Air Mass Movement: Particles representing air masses flow toward mountain ranges
• Orographic Lifting: Air rises when encountering mountain terrain
• Cloud Formation: Visual representation of condensation when temperature and humidity conditions are met
• Rain Mode: Toggle to visualize precipitation falling from clouds
• Interactive Controls: Adjust wind direction and camera view

Building

Requirements

• macOS (tested on macOS, but should work on Linux/Windows with modifications)
• GLFW3 library
• OpenGL 3.3+
• GCC or Clang compiler

Install Dependencies

On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install glfw

Compile

make

Run

make run
# or
./weather_visualizer

Controls

• ESC - Exit the application
• SPACE - Toggle rain mode on/off
• R - Reset the simulation
• P - Pause/Resume simulation
• Arrow Keys - Adjust wind direction (Left/Right for horizontal, Up/Down for vertical)
• Mouse Scroll - Zoom camera in/out

How It Works

1. Air Masses: Blue particles spawn on the left side of the screen and move toward the mountains
2. Mountain Encounter: When particles hit the mountain terrain, they experience orographic lifting
3. Temperature Changes: As air rises, temperature decreases (adiabatic cooling)
4. Cloud Formation: When temperature drops below the condensation threshold (based on humidity), particles turn white and expand
5. Precipitation: In rain mode, rain drops spawn from dense cloud particles and fall with gravity