Developing Standards-Based Analysis and Visualization Tools for ROMS

Richard Signell (1), Sachin Kumar-Bhate (2), and John Evans (3)

(1) USGS, Woods Hole, MA, USA
(2) MSSTATE, Stennis Space Center, MS, USA
(3) IMCS, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA


We are building new standards-based tools for ROMS users. One component a set of is Matlab tools that are based on Java rather than machine-dependent mex files. This not only makes the software easier to maintain and install, but gives access to higher level Java functions, such as time conversion and slices along arbitrary sections. As a first step, the data retrieval tools in the SNCTOOLS package have been modified to allow for using NetCDF-Java routines for data input. The RSLICE GUI visualization tool therefore also no longer requires Mex files, as it is built on top of SNCTOOLs. The new higher level tools are being built so that they will work with any CF-Compliant model output, not just ROMS files. The future directions of CF will also be discussed, as there are plans to cover a variety of more sophisticated model relationships, such as grid staggering, mosaics of grids, contact regions and overlapping contact regions.