ROAM Control System
Uwe Rosebrock, Gary Carroll
Software Engineers & Scientific Programmers
March 2009
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
www.csiro.au
In the beginning there was a plan …
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM Control System
• The Relocatable Ocean and Atmosphere Model
(ROAM) is an operational product for predicting ocean
temperatures, salinity, currents and sea-level in an
user-specified domain
• The system is largely automated, with user
interaction restricted to a graphical user interface
• The ROAM software is designed to allow the user to:
 Graphically specify the model domain
 Control the execution of the models available
(Coordinate and manage the routine acquisition of global data
from a data server)
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM Control System architecture
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DS -> Data Store -> Relational Database
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
DATA server
ROAM Run Specification Framework
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
DS -> Data Store -> Relational Database
ROAM Control System March, 2009
•Define, control
and monitor
runs
•Define spatial
& temporal
parameters.
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DATA server
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
ROAM Run Coordination Framework
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
DS -> Data Store -> Relational Database
ROAM Control System March, 2009
•Manage and
Monitor current
and historic
runs.
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DATA server
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
• Coordinate the
scheduling and
dispatching of
runs.
ROAM Retrieving operational data
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
DS -> Data Store -> Relational Database
ROAM Control System March, 2009
• Download
operational data
from the data
provider.
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DATA server
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
• Register the
data with DMF.
ROAM Data Management Framework
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
DS -> Data Store -> Relational Database
ROAM Control System March, 2009
• Manage
datasets.
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DATA server
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
• translate
dataset into
formats required
by models.
ROAM Model Execution Framework
ROAM Control System
Run Specification
Framework - GUI
Run Coordination System
•Acquire and
prepare data for
run.
Data
Management
Framework
Ocean Models
Hydrodynamic
DATA server
D
S
Model Execution Managers
Atmospheric
Models
Data download
and registration
Wave
D
S
•Prepare,
execute and
monitor model.
•register output
with DMF.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Communication
Currently ‘Point to
Point’ communication,
soon Peer based
communication
allowing further
decoupling of
components and
concurrency
(distributed MEM’s
providing specialized
capability i.e. ROMS)
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Data products currently utilized
Forcing data for Models:
• Ocean maps
 OFAM Forecast
 Near-Real-Time analysis
 Behind-Real-Time analysis
• LAPS
• GASP
• SST (GHRSST)
• TC BOGUS
• WAM Regional Forecast / WAM Australian meso-scale forecast
• BRAN (hind cast)
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
The user interface supports:
 Creating and scheduling a new model run
 Monitoring a model run
 Aborting a model run
 Deleting a model run and all its contextual information
 Viewing statistics of some model runs
 Managing user privileges and preferences
 Graphical selection of a model domain
 Provide access to the data produced by the models
 Select extraction of subsets of the forcing data
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
The user interface can:
 Run on any major platform (MS Windows, Linux, MacOSX)
 Connect to the Run Control Framework from anywhere
given access to the relevant network
 Support multiple concurrent connection.
 Support role based access control
ROAM Control System March, 2009
GUI components
Run summary monitor. Shows the summary status information
about currently executing runs and recently completed runs.
Detailed run monitor. Detailed run information about the currently
selected run, and some limited controls.
System messages. A panel displaying information, warning and
error messages about currently executing runs.
Run management. Manages the creation and editing of runs.
Run groups. Manages the creation and editing of run groups.
Preferences. Permits editing of user settings, and control of system
alerts.
Administration. User and privilege management.
Alerts. Alert notification management.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface In
Detail
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
Run Summaries
Displays the status of historical, scheduled and executing runs
Runs are sorted, grouped and colour-coded according to the value of the first
column
Select run (highlighted in blue) to see more details in the Detailed run monitor
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
Run Details
Run Specification
• Describes the model
settings and run-time
parameters
• Displays the model grid as
a graphical inset. More
detailed view of grid
appears on mouse over.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
Run Details
Run status
• Describes the execution
status of the selected run
• Detailed execution messages
are displayed in separate tabs
for each model.
• All messages are timestamped and colour-coded to
indicate the importance of the
message.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface
Run Details
Run statistics
• Provides a quick visual
assessment of how well the model
performed and whether the statistics
are within a tolerable range
• The model variables, reference
heights and colour ranges are
displayed
• The 10th, 50th and 90th
percentiles statistics for each
variable and reference height are
drawn on top of a 'traffic light
indicator'.
• Provide references to the
designated Output.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM User and Remote Control Interface In
Detail
• Messages generated by the system to indicate run progress
• Transient. Stored in application cache
• Time-stamped and colour coded according to importance
Informational. Minor message.
Significant. Important message (e.g. run started, run aborted).
Warning. A potential error (e.g. forcing data is unavailable).
Error. Indicates that a fatal error occurred while trying to run the model.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Run management
The Run Editor is used to define the run parameters,
model parameters and the grid definition
• All runs are stored in the RCF database
• Runs can be repeated based on previous runs
• Run templates can be created to maintain domain
information
• The model combination can be selected
• Defining a run is laid out as a step by step process
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Run Editor
• Run name is set
to the forecast start
time.
• The Atmosphere,
Ocean, and Wave
option toggles
excluding or
including the
respective model.
• Forecast period
can be 1, 2, 3, 5, or
7 days.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Run Editor
• Shows details of
selected grid.
• Define parameters:
origin, resolution,
aspect ratio, number
of cells.
• Visual feedback as
to whether the run
estimate is within the
tolerable range.
• Depending on
which group of
models are selected,
tabs show the
dependent grids.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Graphical Grid Editor
• Ocean grids is defined inside
Toolbar buttons allow
for zoom in, zoom out,
rapid zoom out, pan and
print.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
the atmospheric grid
• Grid can be extended a long a
boundary and shifted using the
grid handles.
Graphical Grid Editor
Depth and height
contours can be
modified (in intervals
of 100m) by using
slider or up/down
keys.
• The Coarse runtime estimate
gives an indication of how long
the run will take, based on
previous historical runs.
• Refined runtime estimate uses
the model specifications to
compute a more accurate
runtime.
• Clicking the ‘Get estimate’
button gives a graphical
representation of the refined
runtime estimate in hours.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Run scheduling options
• Options for setting
execution start time
 None
 Immediate
 Start after completion
of a specific run
 User specified time
• Option to repeat a
run every 12 or 24
hours
• Run priority – low,
medium, high
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Run Summary
The summary panel
displays the details for
all submitted models.
This step is not required
for submitting runs.
ROAM Control System March, 2009
ROAM Overview
• The Relocatable Ocean and Atmosphere Model
(ROAM) is an operational product for predicting
atmospheric an oceanic properties in an userspecified domain
• The system is largely automated, with user
interaction restricted to a graphical user interface
• The ROAM software is designed to allow the user to:
 Graphically specify the model domain
 Control the execution of the models available
 Retrieve the output of successful runs automatically through
dedicated upload Break
ROAM Control System March, 2009
Where to in the short term…
The ROAM team is currently;
• incorporating more models (i.e NearCom)
• incorporating more data streams (i.e.Global SST)
• enable expert users to customize the combination of
forcing
• enable expert users to customize general parameters
of a specific model
• enable expert users to create ensembles of runs (i.e.
for parameter estimation)
ROAM Control System March, 2009
… in the mid term
With establishing IMOS and EMII,
it is expected that a variety of data will be made available via
OpenDAP server also providing access to meta data, given
the currently being implemented standards;
 ROAM could be able to discover the latest published data and utilize
it to force models,
 Create ensembles of comparative model runs over the same domain
using distributed data streams,
 and much more...
Later this year,
ROAM will be moving to a peer driven and capability based
communication model, as a result ROAM becomes truly
distributed!
ROAM Control System March, 2009