Close collaboration with other scientific fields is an important goal for the visualization community. Yet engaging in a scientific collaboration can be challenging. The physical sciences, namely astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences and physics, exhibit an extensive range of research directions, providing exciting challenges for visualization scientists and creating ample possibilities for collaboration. We present the first survey of its kind that provides a comprehensive view of existing work

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... on visualization for the physical sciences. We introduce novel classification schemes based on application area, data dimensionality and main challenge addressed, and apply these classifications to each contribution from the literature. Our survey helps in understanding the status of current research and serves as a useful starting point for those interested in visualization for the physical sciences. D. Lipşa et al. / Visualization for the Physical Sciences The main benefits and contributions of this paper are: 1. We review visualization work for the physical sciences published in the last 10 years. 2. This is the first survey of its kind that provides a comprehensive view of existing work on visualization for the physical sciences. 3. We introduce novel classifications schemes based on application area, data dimensionality and challenges addressed, and apply this classification scheme to each contribution. 4. Our classification helps in understanding the status of current research by highlighting mature areas in visualization for the physical sciences and areas where few solutions have been provided. Collaborations with domain scientists have the potential to introduce new problems to the visualization field and can contribute to its advancement.