• 3.6.1.1 MDSIO output files
• 3.6.1.2 MNC output files

3.6.1 Output files

The model produces various output files. Depending upon the I/O package selected (either mdsio or mnc or both as determined by both the compile-time settings and the run-time flags in data.pkg), the following output may appear.

3.6.1.1 MDSIO output files

The ``traditional'' output files are generated by the mdsio package. At a minimum, the instantaneous ``state'' of the model is written out, which is made of the following files:

• U.00000nIter - zonal component of velocity field (m/s and eastward).

• V.00000nIter - meridional component of velocity field (m/s and northward).

• W.00000nIter - vertical component of velocity field (ocean: m/s and upward, atmosphere: Pa/s and towards increasing pressure i.e. downward).

• T.00000nIter - potential temperature (ocean: C, atmosphere: K).

• S.00000nIter - ocean: salinity (psu), atmosphere: water vapor (g/kg).

• Eta.00000nIter - ocean: surface elevation (m), atmosphere: surface pressure anomaly (Pa).

The chain 00000nIter consists of ten figures that specify the iteration number at which the output is written out. For example, U.0000000300 is the zonal velocity at iteration 300.

In addition, a ``pickup'' or ``checkpoint'' file called:

• pickup.00000nIter

is written out. This file represents the state of the model in a condensed form and is used for restarting the integration. If the C-D scheme is used, there is an additional ``pickup'' file:

• pickup_cd.00000nIter

containing the D-grid velocity data and that has to be written out as well in order to restart the integration. Rolling checkpoint files are the same as the pickup files but are named differently. Their name contain the chain ckptA or ckptB instead of 00000nIter. They can be used to restart the model but are overwritten every other time they are output to save disk space during long integrations.

3.6.1.2 MNC output files

Unlike the mdsio output, the mnc-generated output is usually (though not necessarily) placed within a subdirectory with a name such as mnc_test_$DATE_$SEQ. The files within this subdirectory are all in the ``self-describing'' netCDF format and can thus be browsed and/or plotted using tools such as:

• At a minimum, the ncdump utility is typically included with every netCDF install:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/
  

• The ncview utility is a very convenient and quick way to plot netCDF data and it runs on most OSes:

  http://meteora.ucsd.edu/~pierce/ncview_home_page.html
  

• MatLAB(c) and other common post-processing environments provide various netCDF interfaces including:

  http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/staffpages/cdenham/public_html/MexCDF/nc4ml5.html
  

Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology