The Severe storm visualization seemed to have the purpose only to show the uneducated (about storms) viewer a storm system in a way that they could comprehend. This is different from the molecular visualizations made by Jane Richardson, which presented the information in a way so that the educated (about molecules) viewer could quickly understand what the characteristics of the molecule he/she was looking at are, and then use it as data for other purposes, or even modify it to make it a more accurate representation of the molecule it is representing.
While the earlier storm visualization was successful in helping the viewer understand how a storm works and looks, that was all it could do. Nowadays, visualizations, like the molecule visualizations shown by Richardson, can be open source and easily modifiable to portray whatever data the user gives it. They also act as system to portray data you are working on. Richardson demonstrated this when she corrected, in real-time, a molecule that had certain proteins incorrectly positioned. She saw some proteins were incorrectly positioned through a visualization system, and then used that same visualization system to fix the molecule.
The storm visualization did have some problems that detracted from its ability to demonstrate storms to the viewer. For example, the rainbow spectrum the reflectivity was mapped to is not perceived by our eyes, in term of realizing linear change, as well as white to black, or white to red color maps. Also, the scale on the visualization was misleading--the height of the storm had by enhanced so that it didn't fit the units of the grid in the usual way. And the storm visualization used high contrast on things less important in the image, rather than only saving the high contrast for things that were very important the user focus on. In the screen shots or the remade version, these things were corrected. As a result, the information about the storm being visualized was much easier to perceive and comprehend.
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In some ways that visualization analyzer tool was the most amazing thing we saw because of its interactivity and potential to help others "author" in this new way. It really highlights how these kinds of writings are fully as complex (if not more so) than the tradition text-based kind!
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