Implementation and use of the Model Diagnostics Task Force package version 3.0

Abstract:

Progress in Earth system model design requires software tools for data exploration and rapid iteration in model development. We have developed the Model Diagnostics Task Force (MDTF) package to capture process-oriented diagnostic (POD) insights from a broad community of investigators, and to provide an extensible language- and model-agnostic infrastructure to streamline the development and running of POD scripts.

The package is designed to meet the workflow needs for model development at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, but is practical for individual academic scientists to install and use without computer administration skills. It provides a portable environment for running diagnostics in a reproducible way, and presents an organized, easily navigable html-based interface for comparison with observational results. The package is also extensible in terms of data sources, filling a gap between internal modelling center naming conventions and community standards such as the CF conventions.

These developments benefit both users and diagnostic contributors, who can more easily incorporate existing analysis codes while allowing the framework to handle the underlying data handling operations. Development is community-driven and built on open-source standards, with an emphasis on providing comprehensive documentation for installing, running, and contributing to the package. Both scientific design and pragmatic use will be covered.