The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) designed its color space to be perceptually uniform so that a given numerical change in the color code corresponds to perceived change in color. This color encoding is demonstrated to be advantageous in scientific visualization and analysis of vector fields. The specific application is analysis of ice motion in the Arctic where patterns in smooth monthly-averaged ice motion are seen. Furthermore, fractures occurring in the ice cover result in discontinuities in the ice motion. This vector jump in displacement can also be visualized. We then analyze modeled and observed fractures through the use of a metric on the color space, and image amplitude and phase metrics. Amplitude and phase metrics arise from image registration that is accomplished by sampling images using space filling curves, thus reducing the image registration problem to the more reliable functional alignment problem. We demonstrate this through an exploration of the metrics to compare model runs to an observed ice crack.