SIParCS 2019 - Jason Ngo
Jason Ngo, Haverford College
Implementing an Observation Support System for Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART)
The Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) is a community software facility for data assimilation. One application of data assimilation is making numerical weather predictions, for which DART combines a forecast model with weather observations (for example, temperature and windspeed) to produce analysis. Currently, DART stores all information about those weather observations in a flat text-based proprietary file format. This text-based file format, though inspectable and portable, is non-standard and does not support database queries.
To solve this issue, this SIParCS project restructures the proprietary file format into Network Common Data Form (netCDF) file. The project also develops a cross-platform graphical user interface (GUI), gradually replacing the MATLAB diagnostics tools included in DART distribution, to help users quickly visualize those output netCDF files. With this GUI, modelers can better understand the impact of observations on their model in a user-friendly fashion.
Mentors: Jeffrey Anderson, Nancy Collins
Slides