LinkWinds is a visual data exploration system resulting from a program of research into the application of computer graphics to rapidly and interactively accessing, displaying, exploring and analyzing large multivariate multidisciplinary data sets. It was originally developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the sponsorship of NASA's Space Science Applied Information Systems Research Program (AISRP), and Mission to Planet Earth's information system NRA program. It is no longer being developed or supported by NASA.

LinkWinds applies a unique data-linking paradigm resulting in a system which functions much like a graphical spreadsheet. It is not only a powerful method for organizing large amounts of data for analysis, but provides a highly intuitive, easy-to-learn, easy-to-retain user interface on top of the traditional graphical user interface. The linking of data displays and controls for their manipulation provides great flexibility in rapidly exploring large masses of complex data to quickly detect trends, correlations and anomalies. The system comprises a large and expanding suite of non-domain specific applications and provides for the ingestion of a variety of database formats. Its many functions and services include:

• 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional graphical displays of data.
• The ability to deal with very large data files.
• Interactive visual data subsetting either at the input or output.
• Supersetting to construct higher dimensionality data sets from sets of data files. This is useful for building time series from daily data accumulations.
• Simultaneous display and analysis of multiple data sets which may be totally unrelated.
• A unique and easy-to-use animation creation and display capability.
• Interactive color manipulation.
• A journal and macro capability allowing replay of an entire session or any portion thereof.
• Hard copy of graphical displays and text.
• A context-sensitive help system.
• Network support for collaborative data analysis with partners anywhere on the internet, using virtually no bandwidth.
• In addition to archived data sets, LinkWinds has demonstrated an ability to ingest and display real time data, which may be from spacecraft, laboratory experiments, or computer simulations.

LinkWinds 2.3 runs on Unix and Linux platforms only. Our next generation package, WebWinds, is written in Java and runs on most platforms including Windows and Mac OS.