Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Appendix > Examples of Display Types
8.0.1 3D Surface
8.0.1.0 Isosurfaces
An isosurface is a surface of a single value in a 3D parameter field.
Isosurfaces are the 3D analog of a single-valued contour line in a 2D
plot. The intersection of an isosurface and a plane is a contour line of
the same value. Isosurfaces may form closed surfaces enclosing regions
of higher or lower value, but not always.
Image 1: 3D Isosurface for 50 m/s wind speed
The IDV also supports isosurface displays that are colored from another
parameter, not the parameter used to make the shape of the surface.
The example here shows an isosurface of 89% relative humidity over
North America colored by air temperature. A useful plot is to color
isosurfaces by height (geopotential height) to show height of features
by color.
Image 2: Relative Humidity isosurface of 89%, colored by air temperature.
8.0.1.1 Topography Display
For data sources that include topography or terrain data, such as the
"terrain" parameter in Eta and RUC model output or DEM data, the IDV
can display a 3D relief map. Select "Topography" for the display type.
 Image 3: DEM data of the Arno river basin in Italy |  Image 4: RUC model terrain |
8.0.1.2 2D Data Draped Over Topography
Two dimensional grid data can be draped over a topography field to
provide a terrain following representation of the data.
Image 5: Sea level pressure over topography
Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Appendix > Examples of Display Types