Last update: 05/14/2008
NCAR has developed many tools and libraries for visualizing data. These have been upgraded over the decades to perform well on the supercomputers installed here. Vendor packages have also grown in functionality and robustness, so NCAR makes them available on the supercomputers.
NCAR Graphics is a Fortran- and C-based software package for scientific visualization. It is available on most SCD compute platforms and is freely available in source or binary format for several UNIX systems. Detailed information on the NCAR Graphics package appears at http://ngwww.ucar.edu/ng/
NCL is a programming language designed specifically for the access, analysis, and visualization of data. It is available on most SCD compute platforms. NCL can be run in interactive mode, where each line is interpreted as it is entered at your workstation, or it can be run in batch mode as an interpreter of complete scripts. NCL is freely available in binary format for several UNIX systems. Detailed information about NCL appears at http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/
VAPOR is an interactive direct volume renderer that permits navigation through time and space of high-resolution, regular-gridded, scalar datasets. It provides hooks to facilitate interaction with other data analysis tools such as IDL. Standing alone, or in combination with IDL, VAPOR provides a powerful discovery and analysis environment. You can learn about it on the VAPOR home page. Note: VAPOR was preceded by a product named Gvolsh.
Matlab provides mathematical computation, analysis, visualization, algorithm development, and deployment for technical computing applications. A product of MathWorks, Inc., Matlab is available on several SCD platforms dedicated to data analysis and postprocessing. These platforms are specified at SCD Computers, Products, and Libraries.
Mathematica integrates a numeric and symbolic computational engine, graphics system, programming language, documentation system, and advanced connectivity to other applications. This software handles complex symbolic calculations that can involve millions of terms and is useful in numerical simulations. Provided by Wolfram Research, Inc., Mathematica is available on several SCD platforms dedicated to data analysis and postprocessing. These platforms are specified at SCD Computers, Products, and Libraries.
Interactive Data Language (IDL) is an integrated toolkit that performs data analysis, visualization, and cross-platform application development for large-scale technical programming efforts. A product of The ITT Corporation, IDL is available on several SCD platforms dedicated to data analysis and postprocessing. These platforms are specified at SCD Computers, Products, and Libraries.
Vis5D is a free, OpenGL-based volumetric visualization program for scientific datasets in 3+ dimensions. Vis5D can be used to visualize data on regular and irregular grids. Sources for this data can be numerical weather models, surface observations, and other similar sources. The software and documentation are available from SourceForge.
Gvolsh has now been superceded by VAPOR, an interactive direct volume renderer that permits navigation through time and space of high-resolution, regular-gridded, scalar datasets. See the VAPOR link above on this page.
Yorick is an interpreted programming language designed for postprocessing or steering large scientific simulation codes. Smaller scientific simulations or calculations can be written as standalone yorick programs. The language features a compact syntax for many common array operations, so it processes large arrays of numbers very efficiently. Yorick can approach to within a factor of four or five of compiled speed for many common tasks. The yorick language is designed to be typed interactively at a keyboard, as well as stored in files for later use. Yorick includes an interactive graphics package and a binary file package capable of translating to and from the raw numeric formats of all modern computers. More information is available on the Yorick home page and from the Washington University file archive.
Overview of computing at NCAR - Table of contents
If you have questions about this document, please contact SCD Customer Support. You can also reach us by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 303-497-1278. Additional contact methods: consult1@ucar.edu and during business hours in NCAR Mesa Lab Suite 39.
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