GrADS

Description

From the GrADS homepage: The Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) is an interactive desktop tool that is used for easy access, manipulation, and visualization of earth science data. GrADS has two data models for handling gridded and station data. GrADS supports many data file formats, including binary (stream or sequential), GRIB (version 1 and 2), NetCDF, HDF (version 4 and 5), and BUFR (for station data).

GrADS uses a 5-Dimensional data environment: the four conventional dimensions (longitude, latitude, vertical level, and time) plus an optional 5th dimension for grids that is generally implemented but designed to be used for ensembles. GrADS has a programmable interface (scripting language) that allows for sophisticated analysis and display applications. Use scripts to display buttons and dropmenus as well as graphics, and then take action based on user point-and-clicks. GrADS can be run in batch mode, and the scripting language facilitates using GrADS to do long overnight batch jobs.

Version

  • 2.0.1

Authorized Users

  • CIRCE account holders
  • RRA account holders
  • SC account holders

Platforms

  • CIRCE cluster
  • RRA cluster
  • SC cluster

Modules

GrADS requires the following module file to run:

  • apps/grads/2.0.1

Running GrADS on CIRCE/SC

The GrADS user guide is essential to understanding the application and making the most of it. The guide and this page should help you to get started with your simulations. Please refer to the Documentation section for a link to the guide.

  • Note on CIRCE: Make sure to run your jobs from your $WORK directory!
  • Note: Scripts are provided as examples only. Your SLURM executables, tools, and options may vary from the example below. For help on submitting jobs to the queue, see our SLURM User’s Guide.

Available Utilities and Submitting Jobs

The following GrADS tools are installed:

  • bufrscan
  • grads
  • gribmap
  • gxeps
  • gxtran
  • stnmap
  • grib2scan
  • gribscan
  • gxps
  • wgrib

Batch Job Submission

If, for example, you have a GrADS script file (named “test.gs for this example) and an input file (named ”input.ctl" for this example), you would set up a submit script like this:

  • The script below (for testing, name it “grads-test.sh”) can be copied into your job directory (the folder with your input files) and modified so that you can submit batch processes to the queue. For help on submitting jobs to the queue, see our SLURM User’s Guide. Scripts are provided as examples only. Your SLURM executables, tools, and options will vary.
#!/bin/bash
#
#SBATCH --comment=grads-test
#SBATCH --ntasks=1
#SBATCH --job-name=grads-test
#SBATCH --output=output.%j.grads-test
#SBATCH --time=01:00:00

#### SLURM 1 processor GrADS test to run for 1 hour.

module load apps/grads/2.0.1

grads -bclx "run test.gs input.ctl"

 
Next, you can change to your job’s directory, and run the sbatch command to submit the job:

[user@login0 ~]$ cd my/jobdir
[user@login0 jobdir]$ sbatch ./grads-test.sh
  • You can view the status of your job with the “squeue -u <username>” command

Documentation

Home Page, User Guides, and Manuals

Benchmarks, Known Tests, Examples, Tutorials, and Other Resources

  • GrADS Examples
    • /apps/grads/2.0.1/examples

More Job Information

See the following for more detailed job submission information:

Reporting Bugs

Report bugs with GrADS to the IT Help Desk: rc-help@usf.edu