Diagnostics Packages & Tools

Diagnostics Packages

As a service to the community, we provide some tools to analyze the model output. This includes the AMWG Diagnostics Framework (ADF), and the Model Diagnostics Task Force (MDTF) diagnostics package.

AMWG Diagnostics Framework (ADF)

The AMWG Diagnostics Framework (ADF) is a unified collection of python scripts used to generate standard plots from CAM outputs. Specifically, this package is currently designed to generate standard climatological comparisons between either two different CAM simulations, or between a CAM simulation and observational and reanalysis datasets. Similar to his predecessor (i.e. the AMWG diagnostics package), the ADF allows for a quick evaluation of a CAM simulation, without requiring the user to generate numerous different figures on their own.

MDTF diagnostics package

The Model Diagnostics Task Force (MDTF) Diagnostic Package is a portable framework for running process-oriented diagnostics to inform model development.

The package is evolving, but currently runs with CAM/CESM output to analyze high frequency climate diagnostics, including the AMWG's Variability Diagnostics (MJO, Wheeler-Kiladis) as well as Rich Neale's diurnal cycle of precipitation and blocking diagnostics: https://github.com/NOAA-GFDL/MDTF-diagnostics. 

AMP Toolbox

If you are interested in general (but non-supported) tools used by AMP scientists and engineers in their work, then please check out the AMP Toolbox. 

Other Tools

Climate Variability Diagnostics Package (CVDP)

The Climate Variability Diagnostics Package (CVDP) is an analysis tool developed by the Climate Analysis Section that documents the major modes of climate variability in models and observations.

NCL

NCL is a free interpreted language designed specifically for scientific data processing and visualization.

Geocat

GeoCAT is the Geoscience Community Analysis Toolkit. GeoCAT is a collection of Python tools related to NCL (NCAR Command Language).

Legacy - Previous Diagnostics Packages

For legacy purpose, we provide links to previous diagnostics packages that are retired or not supported/updated anymore. This includes the Atmosphere Model Working Group (AMWG) diagnostics package and the CESM Python Post Processing tools. 

AMWG diagnostics package

The Atmosphere Model Working Group (AMWG) diagnostics package was a post-processing utility for CAM. It produced over 600 plots and tables from CAM monthly output and automatically creates webpages. Although the AMWG diagnostics has been retired, older versions are still available online. Beware that some of the instructions could be outdated.

CESM Python Post Processing tools

The CESM python post processing repository code integrates light-weight parallel python tools developed by the NCAR CISL ASAP group and diagnostics plotting packages developed by the CESM Working Groups into a common framework that can be used to post process CESM data. This package is not updated anymore.