Description of Common Software Tools

CDO: Climate Data Operators

Support Services

Support services for CDO include the CDO helpdesk and webserver and maintaining up-to-date documentation and FAQ on the CDO home page.

Tool description

CDO is a collection of command line Operators to manipulate and analyse Climate and forecast model Data. Supported data formats are GRIB, netCDF, SERVICE, EXTRA and IEG. There are more than 400 operators available.

CDO compiles on any POSIX compatible OS with an ANSI C compiler (detailed list).

Most of these information have been collected from CDO´s homepage. They have been last updated on Jun 15, 2021.

OASIS: The OASIS coupler

Support Services

Support services for OASIS are provided by IS-ENES3 and ESiWACE2.

Within IS-ENES3, active user support includes documentation, tutorial, FAQs and user forums, easy access to OASIS software sources, and personal help to efficiently use the software. For details, please refer to the OASIS homepage. Two 2-day training sessions at Cerfacs and 9 PMs of OASIS3-MCT Dedicated User Support are also planned over the project duration.

Within ESiWACE2, technical help is offered to upgrade or enhance the implementation of OASIS3-MCT in coupled models. 4 PMs of such support will be offered over the project duration. A Small Private On-line Course (SPOC) has also been set-up.

For Dedicated User Support, see the specific page on the OASIS web site.

For more information on face-to-face trainings and SPOCs, please see the OASIS3-MCT training page.

Tool description

The OASIS coupler is a software allowing synchronized exchanges of coupling information between numerical codes representing different components of the climate system.

Most of these information have been collected from OASIS´s homepage. They have been last updated on Feb 15, 2022.

Cylc: A Python based workflow engine

Support Services

Support services for Cylc are provided by IS-ENES3 and ESiWACE2.

Within IS-ENES3, those services include (i) support in initial decision making and planning, (ii) remote support via email or the cylc online forum and hands-on remote problem analysis where this is possible, (iii) consultancy to encourage best practice and support adoption of good suite design and (iv) enhancements to the documentation (including training material) based on community feedback.

Within ESiWACE2, technical help is offered to upgrade or enhance use of Cylc. 6 PMs of such support will be offered over the project duration.

Anyone looking for support in using or evaluating Cylc is invited to contact the Met Office (metomi@metoffice.gov.uk) to discuss their specific requirements.

If you have any general questions about Cylc you are encouraged to use the Cylc forum (https://cylc.discourse.group/).

Tool description

Cylc (“silk”) is a Python based workflow engine and meta-scheduler to manage a set of dependant tasks that need to run in a given order and deal with exceptions.

The development priorities have been agreed on with IS-ENES and are available here .

For further details please visit the Cylc homepage.

Most of these information have been collected from Cylc´s homepage. They have been last updated on Feb 15, 2022.

XIOS: XML-IO-Server

Support Services

Support services for XIOS are provided by IS-ENES3 and ESiWACE2.

Within IS-ENES3, user support including web services (e.g. on-line download, documentation, installation information, hints for best practices, …) and assistance through e-mails, is offered. 4 two-day training sessions are also planned.

Within ESiWACE2, technical help is offered to design, upgrade or enhance the implementation of XIOS in components of current climate models. 2 PMs of such support will be offered in 2021.

Tool description

XIOS, or XML-IO-Server, is a library dedicated to I/O management in climate codes. XIOS manages output of diagnostics and other data produced by climate component codes into files and offers temporal and spatial post-processing operations on this data. XIOS aims at simplifying the I/O management by minimizing the number of subroutines to be called and by supporting a maximum of on-line processing of the data.

Most of these information have been collected from XIOS´s homepage. They have been last updated on June 15, 2021.

ESMValTool: A community diagnostic and performance metrics tool for routine evaluation of Earth system models in CMIP

References

• https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/13/1179/2020/
• https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/13/3383/2020/
• https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/13/4205/2020/
• https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3159/2021/

Support Services

The services provided by IS-ENES3 include:

1. Free download of up-to-date versions of the software via Github,
2. access to relevant information about installation and use,
3. documentation with SPHINX that will be enhanced and automated so that the user guide can be kept up to date,
4. tutorials (including video presentations),
5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),
6. user forums, including hints for best practices, and
7. personal help to efficiently use the software and the diagnostic portal via direct user support by experts from the development team, available to answer specific questions and provide guidance on how to use the software on specific platforms and in particular configurations.

Tool description

The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community diagnostics and performance metrics tool for the evaluation of Earth System Models (ESMs) that allows for routine comparison of single or multiple models, either against predecessor versions or observations.

The priority of the effort so far has been to target specific scientific themes focusing on selected Essential Climate Variables, a range of known systematic biases common to ESMs, such as coupled tropical climate variability, monsoons, Southern Ocean processes, continental dry biases and soil hydrology-climate interactions, as well as atmospheric CO2 budgets, tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, and tropospheric aerosols. The tool is being developed in such a way that additional analyses can easily be added. A set of standard recipes for each scientific topic reproduces specific sets of diagnostics or performance metrics that have demonstrated their importance in ESM evaluation in the peer-reviewed literature.

The ESMValTool is a community effort open to both users and developers encouraging open exchange of diagnostic source code and evaluation results from the CMIP ensemble. This will facilitate and improve ESM evaluation beyond the state-of-the-art and aims at supporting such activities within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and at individual modeling centers.

Ultimately, we envisage running the ESMValTool alongside the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) as part of a more routine evaluation of CMIP model simulations while utilizing observations available in standard formats (obs4MIPs) or provided by the user.

Most of these information have been collected from ESMValTool´s homepage. They have been last updated on June 22, 2021.