Data analysis software tools for enhanced collaboration at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility

Data analysis at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility is simplified by the u se of two software packages in analysis codes. The first is 'GAPlotObj', an IDL-based object-oriented library used in visualization tools for dynamic plotting. GAPlotObj gives users the ability to manipulate graphs directly t hrough mouse and keyboard-driven commands. The second software package is ' MDSplus', which is used at DIII-D as a central repository for analyzed data . GAPlotObj and MDSplus reduce the effort required for a collaborates to be come familiar with the DIII-D analysis environment by providing uniform int erfaces for data display and retrieval. Two visualization tools at DIII-D t hat benefit from them are 'ReviewPlus' and 'EFITviewer'. ReviewPlus is capa ble of displaying interactive 2D and 3D graphs of raw, analyzed, and simula tion code data. EFITviewer is used to display results from the EFIT analysi s code together with kinetic profiles and machine geometry. Both bring new possibilities for data exploration to the user, and are able to plot data f rom any fusion research site with an MDSplus data server. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.