Zeb: Software for Integration, Display and Management of Diverse Environmental Datasets

Abstract

This paper describes the Zeb software for integration, display, and management of diverse environmental datasets. Zeb's primary use is for the superpositioning of observational datasets (such as those collected by satellite, radar, mesonet, and aircraft) and analysis products (such as model results, dual-Doppler synthesis, or algorithm output). Data may be overlaid on a variety of display types, including constant altitude planes, vertical cross sections, X–Y graphs, skew T plots, and time–height profiles. The fields for display, color tables, contour intervals, and various other display options are defined using an icon-based user interface. This highly flexible system allows scientific investigators to interactively superimpose and highlight diverse datasets, thus aiding data interpretation. Data handling capabilities permit external analysis programs to be easily linked with display and data storage processes. The data store accepts incoming data, stores it on disk, and makes it available to processes that need it. An application library is available for data handling. The library functions allow data storage, retrieval, and queries using a single applications interface, regardless of the data's source and organization. The software system runs under Unix and the X Window system. Zeb has been used for real-time project control as well as data interpretation at investigators' home institutions. Features and implementation are explained along with examples of graphic output.