Course Description
Computer User Training Course 19 February - 12 March 2004

COM-SMS: SMS/XCdp (19-20 February 2004)

This 2-day module will start Thursday, 19 February 2004, at 9.00, and finish Friday, 20 February 2004, at 17.00.

SMS is an application that enables users to run a large number of programs which may have dependencies on one another, and in time, in a controlled environment with reasonable tolerance of both hardware and software failures, combined with good restart capabilities. Users talk to SMS using either the command and display program, CDP, or its X-windows equivalent, XCdp.

This module assumes the student has a good knowledge of UNIX and of running scripts.

Topics:

• SMS
• XCdp
  

COM INTRO: Introduction for new users/MARS (23 - 27 February 2004)

This 5-day module will start Monday, 23 March 2004, at 9.00 and finish Friday, 27 February 2004 at 13.00.

The aim of this module is to introduce students to ECMWF's basic computing services, both the workstation systems and the data storage/archive facility. MARS is the Centre's meteorological data archive. This course is aimed at new users of ECMWF's computer services.

Topics:

• System and hardware overview
• Submitting batch jobs
• Access from Member States
• Data storage/retrieval facilities
• Running Fortran jobs
• Libraries
• MARS (Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System)
  • overview
  • description of data available
  • practical examples
• Decoding/encoding routines
• Interpolation of data
  

COM MAG: MAGICS (1 - 2 March 2004)

This 2-day module will start Monday, 1 March 2004, at 9.00, and finish Tuesday, 2 March 2004, at 17.00.

MAGICS is a Fortran callable meteorological graphics package, created at ECMWF, that interfaces to the data archive (MARS) and produces meteorological plots. It is used heavily within METVIEW. It has been exported to several Member State meteorological services. The course contents cover MAGICS programming and the use of the MAGICS subroutine library.

This module assumes the student has knowledge of running batch jobs.

Topics:

• MAGICS subroutine library
• MAGICS programming
  

COM-MV: Metview (3 - 5 March 2004)

This 3-day module will start Wednesday, 3 March 2004, at 9.00, and finish Friday, 5 March 2004 at 17.00.

METVIEW is ECMWF's interactive visualisation package for meteorological data. It has been exported to several Member State meteorological services. The course contents cover METVIEW's concepts to access, manipulate and visualise meteorological data, in particular its powerful macro language.

This module assumes the student has a basic knowledge of X-windows.

Topics:

• Metview
• Metview macros
  

COM-HPCF: Use of supercomputing resources (8 - 12 March 2004)

This 5-day module will start Monday, 8 March 2004, at 9.00 and finish Friday, 12 March 2004 at 13.00.

This module assumes the student has already begun to use ECMWF's computer services. The aim is to introduce students to ECMWF's supercomputing services, to cover those areas of optimisation that will help the student to make more efficient use of the system, and to avoid those areas which may adversely impact overall system performance.

Topics:

• Hardware architecture review
• File system overview
• Programming environment
• Performance analysis tools
• Batch system - LoadLeveler
• Optimisation
• OpenMP introduction