ZEB - SOFTWARE FOR INTEGRATION, DISPLAY, AND MANAGEMENT OF DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL DATASETS

This paper describes the Zeb software for integration, display, and ma nagement of diverse environmental datasets. Zeb's primary use is for t he superpositioning of observational datasets (such as those collected by satellite, radar, mesonet, and aircraft) and analysis products (su ch as model results, dual-Doppler synthesis, or algorithm output). Dat a may be overlaid on a variety of display types, including constant al titude planes, vertical cross sections, X-Y graphs, skew T plots, and time-height profiles. The fields for display, color tables, contour in tervals, and various other display options are defined using an icon-b ased user interface. This highly flexible system allows scientific inv estigators to interactively superimpose and highlight diverse datasets , thus aiding data interpretation. Data handling capabilities permit e xternal analysis programs to be easily linked with display and data st orage processes. The data store accepts incoming data, stores it on di sk, and makes it available to processes that need it. An application l ibrary is available for data handling. The library functions allow dat a storage, retrieval, and queries using a single applications interfac e, regardless of the data's source and organization. The software syst em 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 wi th examples of graphic output.