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EAM QuickView screenshot

What is QuickView?

EAM QuickView is an open-source, interactive visualization tool designed for scientists working with the atmospheric component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), known as the E3SM Atmosphere Model (EAM). Its Python- and Trame-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides intuitive access to ParaView's powerful analysis and visualization capabilities, without the steep learning curve.

Quick Start

  • Install and launch the app for end users or for app developers.
  • Download connectivity files of EAM's cubed-sphere grids from Zenodo.
  • Optional: download sample simulation output to test the app.
  • For EAMv2 and v3 developers and users: if your simulation data files are not the original files written out by the model, i.e., if your files were generated by NCO, CDO, etc. check QuickView's data format requirements.
  • For EAMxx developers and users: EAMxx's most recent output format changes might not have been accommodated. If your run into problems opening your data files, please check the Issues tab on GitHub and open a new issue if needed.

For more details, go to the navigation bar of this website and look for our User's Guide.

Why QuickView?

While comprehensive visualization tools like ParaView and VisIt are widely used in the scientific community, they often present a steep learning curve—requiring users who are not experts in visual analytics to navigate unfamiliar interfaces, functions, and jargon. Moreover, these general-purpose tools may lack out-of-the-box support for key requirements in atmospheric sciences, such as globe and map projections or support for specific data formats and structures, leading to time-consuming customization or feature requests. EAM QuickView was developed to address these limitations by offering a focused, user-friendly platform that streamlines the analysis of atmospheric simulations. It minimizes the need for EAM developers and users to write custom scripts, thereby shortening the path from data to insight.

The core goal of EAM QuickView is a first glance at the contents in a simulation data file, i.e., a first inspection of the characteristic values of physical quantities and their variations with respect to geographical location, altitude, and time, as well as a quick inspection across different physical quantities for similarities or distinctions. Compared to earlier and widely used tools like ncview and ncvis, QuickView has an emphasis on multivariate visualization and is currently focused on the EAM model.

Key Features

  • Intuitive, minimalist interface tailored for atmospheric modeling.
  • Multi-variable visualization with drag-and-drop layout.
  • Persistent sessions - pick up where you left off.
  • Support for EAM v2, v3, and upcoming v4 output formats.

Bug reports and feature requests

Please use the Issues tab on GitHub.

Project Background

The lead developer of EAM QuickView is Abhishek Yenpure (abhi.yenpure@kitware.com) at Kitware, Inc.. Other key contributors at Kitware, Inc. include Berk Geveci and Sebastien Jourdain. Key contributors on the atmospheric science side are Hui Wan and Kai Zhang at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

EAM QuickView is a product of an interdisciplinary collaboration supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and Biological and Environmental Research (BER) via the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program.