The QuickView Family

The QuickView family is a collection of interactive tools for visualizing and analyzing Earth system simulation data on the model’s native grid. Compared to diagnostic packages that generate hundreds of static figures for comprehensive model evaluation, our tools aim at facilitating the exploratory work often needed early in an investigation or during code debugging.

Each tool in the QuickView family supports only a small set of tasks. This focus keeps the graphical interfaces simple and intuitive. Meanwhile, we are continuing to examine common analysis workflows and emerging needs and considering additions to the family.

The first three members of the family are

• QuickView for simultaneously presenting 2D contour plots of multiple physical quantities (variables) on global or regional maps,
• QuickCompare for contrasting two or more simulations, also using 2D contour plots, and
• SiteView for process-level analysis of an atmospheric column and its regional environment.

Currently, our tools only support the E3SM Atmosphere Model's cubed-sphere meshes, including both the ne*np4 GLL grids and the ne*pg2 "physics" grids. Extensions to other meshes are underway.

Key Reminders

Two modes of use

All tools in the family support two ways of usage: a new-vis mode for starting a new visualization and a resume mode for continuing an earlier, saved analysis. Further details can be found on, e.g., this page.

Connectivity files

Since E3SM's cubed spheres are unstructured horizontal meshes, connectivity files need to be provided to our tools alongside the simulation files. Please note that such connectivity files are, typically, not the mapping files used for interpolating data to regular late-lon grids. Further information can be found on this page.

Consistency between connecitivity and simulation files

One of the often encountered causes of error when loading files in the QuickView family is that the horizontal grid described by the connecitivity file does not match the grid in the simulation file. In such a case, after the user has specified those files and clicked the Load files button (see more detailed description here), the file loading dialogue window will remain open and appear non-responsive, and the terminal window will display a message prompting the user to check if the simulation and connectivity files exist and are compatible.

The Load ... Variables button

Most buttons, sliders, and selection boxes in the graphical User Interfaces (UIs) apply their effects immediately upon user interaction. An important exception is variable selection: After variables are chosen for the first time following file loading or after the selection is changed, the user must click the Load ... Variables button at the top of the variable selection control panel in order for the new selection to take effect, i.e., for the selected variables to be loaded into memory and shown as images in the viewport.

Show/hide control panels

Each tool in the QuickView family contains multiple control panels for setting properties of the visualization. These control panels can be shown/expanded for easy access or be hidden/folded to maximize the screen space for visualization The UIs provide both keyboard shortcuts and toggles in the main toolbar to show or hide these control panels.

Viewport layout

All tools in the QuickView family are designed to simultaneously present multiple images and/or charts to help the user identify relationships and distinctions. In QuickView, the size, sequence, and arrangment of the contour plots can be easily adjusted through the viewport-layout control panel and keyboard shortcuts. In QuickCompare, additional buttons and mini-menus are provided for configurating a comparison between two simulations or across an ensemble.

Furthermore, if a user saves a state file after these adjustments, they can later resume their analysis with the customized arrangement. The use of state files in QuickView and QuickCompare is explained in the linked pages.