NCL/NCARG

NCAR Graphics is a Fortran and C based software package for scientific visualization.  NCL (The NCAR Command Language), is a free interpreted language designed specifically for scientific data processing and visualization. It is a product of the Computational & Information Systems Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. NCL has robust file input and output: it can read and write netCDF-3, netCDF-4 classic, HDF4, binary, and ASCII data, and read HDF-EOS2, GRIB1, and GRIB2. The graphics are based on NCAR Graphics.

Availability and Restrictions

Versions

NCL/NCAR Graphics is available on Pitzer and Owens Cluster. The versions currently available at OSC are:

Version Pitzer Notes
6.5.0 X(GI) netcdf-serial and hdf5-serial required for NCL
6.6.2 X(GI)* netcdf-serial and hdf5-serial required for NCL
* Current default version; G = available with gnu; I = available with intel

You can use  module spider ncarg to view available NCL/NCAR Graphics modules. Feel free to contact OSC Help if you need other versions for your work.

Access 

NCL/NCAR Graphics is available for use by all OSC users.

Publisher/Vendor/Repository and License Type

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Open source

Usage

Usage on Pitzer

Set-up on Pitzer

To load the default version use module load ncarg.  
module load ncarg

Batch Usage on Pitzer

Batch jobs can request mutiple nodes/cores and compute time up to the limits of the OSC systems.
Interactive Batch Session
For an interactive batch session on Pitzer, one can run the following command:
sinteractive -A <project-account> -N 1 -n 48 -t 1:00:00
which gives you 1 node (-N 1), 48 cores (-n 48), and 1 hour (-t 1:00:00). You may adjust the numbers per your need.
Non-interactive Batch Job (Serial Run)
A batch script can be created and submitted for a serial or parallel run. You can create the batch script using any text editor you like in a working directory on the system of your choice. The following example batch script file will use the input file named interp1d_1.ncl.
Below is the example batch script job.txt for a serial run:
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --time=1:00:00
#SBATCH --nodes=1 --ntasks-per-ndoe=48
#SBATCH --job-name=jobname
#SBATCH --account <project-account> 

module load gnu/9.1.0
module load ncarg
module load netcdf
module load hdf5

module list
echo $NETCDF
cp interp1d_1.ncl $PFSDIR
cd $PFSDIR
ncl interp1d_1.ncl
cp -r $PFSDIR $SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR

In order to run it via the batch system, submit the job.txt file with the following command:

sbatch job.txt

Further Reading

Official documentation can be obtained from NCL homepage.

Supercomputer: 
Pitzer
Service: 
Software
Fields of Science: 
Earth Sciences
Visualization