AEROCOM-idltools

Description of the AEROCOM-idltools

Purpose

Rapid data analysis to perform

• analysis of Model 2d fields
• Model vs. ground data comparisons
• Model vs. model comparisons
• Model vs. satellite data comparisons

Features

• Read model data of 50+ models/experiments
  • Daily, monthly, 3hrly data
  • Calculate daily or monthly data, if necessary
  • Do the same plots for several models at once
  • Variables are fully configurable
  • Filter data (e.g. location, height, land, sea, etc.)

• Read obs data (e.g. AERONET, EBAS, AEROCE, EMEP, EARLINET, etc.)
• Read satellite data (MISR, MODIS)
• Extract model data at ground station locations
• Plot model 2d fields
• Plot time series of model vs. ground data
• Plot model vs. model data at ground station locations
• Scatter plots, Taylor plots, Histograms
• Calculation of Median model and write it to netCDF files
• Interpolate data to common grid
• Calculation of climatological obs data set
• Several statistics (Scores)
• Can be run as a batch job
• Distributed to the idefix2 users via svn repository

Requirements

Usually users will use the AEROCOM-idltools on the AEROCOM server idefix2.extra.cea.fr where it is also tested.
In principle the tools can be used on every unix machine that runs idl 7.1.1. (which is the first version to be able to read netCDF version 4 files) and has necessary resources (RAM and storage) to store the wanted model data. By rule of thumb the tools need ca. 1GB for a model with an 1 by 1 degree grid.
There are also some rules for the format of the netcdf files. Please send questions regarding this to Michael Schulz or Jan Griesfeller

Getting the tools

On idefix2 you can download the repository with the command
svn checkout file:///home/aerocom0/AAATOOLS/SVN/aerocomIDL
This will create the subfolder aerocomIDL in the current folder.

Setting up idl to run the AEROCOM-idltools

There are some constraints regarding the idl configuration to run the AEROCOM-idltools. You have to make sure the the actual working directory is set to the directory of the tools (named aerocomIDL above). In addition the search path of idl has to be setup to include the aerocomIDL directory and all the subdirectories. Since there are several ways to achieve this, please consult the idl documentation how to do this.