Visualization of Visualization of GFDL/NOAA Climate GFDL/NOAA Climate

ModelsModels

PrabhatLBNL/NERSC

DOECGFApril 30, 2008

BackgroundBackgroundGFDL/NOAA awarded 800K hours

at NERSC◦next generation of climate

simulations Simulations run on Franklin (Cray

XT4)Data Management for multiple

TBsProduction Quality Visualizations

Visualization requirementsVisualization requirementsLimitations with standard desktop

tools◦Ferret, IDL, GrADS, RenderMan,

BlenderHandle large datasets (10s of GB)

◦NetCDF◦Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions

Parallel processingPresentation quality images/moviesTool deployment at GFDL/NOAA

GFDL/NOAA climate models GFDL/NOAA climate models (1/2)(1/2)cm2.4

◦Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere/Ice/Land model

◦Atmosphere (1°), Ocean (0.25°)◦Tri-Polar mesh◦1440x1070x50 grid◦150 variables◦12 timesteps◦~20GB

IPCC scenarios

GFDL/NOAA climate models GFDL/NOAA climate models (2/2)(2/2)c360

◦Atmosphere (0.25°) ◦Cube-Sphere mesh

Scales well, no FFT

◦2160x2160x32 grid◦60 variables◦42 timesteps◦~25GB◦Test runs for scaling to c2000

VisItVisItSatisfied all of our collaborators

needsDeveloped two plugins for climate

models◦Avoid expensive conversion process

Domain decompositionPseudocolor plotsMultiple overlaysAnnotation toolsSpherical/planar projections…

Sample Results (cm2.4)Sample Results (cm2.4)

Sample Results Sample Results (c180/360)(c180/360)

Some (un)expected Some (un)expected lessonslessonsUse familiar colormaps

◦Tool must have functionality to import colormaps (ncview->VisIt)

◦Scientists have learnt to interpret rainbow maps!

Simplify the plots◦Static image vs. Dynamic animations◦Be careful with rendering multiple

fields

SummarySummaryImplemented functionality within

VisIt with short turn-around timeCustom visualizations developed

with scientist’s feedback◦Presented at DOE meetings/SC07

VisIt deployed at GFDL/NOAA

AcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsGFDL/NOAA

◦V. Balaji, Tony Rosati◦Chris Kerr, Remik Ziemlinski, Hans

ValenkampLBNL/NERSC

◦Janet Jacobsen, Gunther Weber, Wes Bethel

◦Richard GerberLLNL

◦Hank Childs