Running NCL on NCAR's Supercomputers

[Click here for information on testing new versions of NCL on the supers.]

If you have an account on one of NCAR's supercomputers, and you want to run NCL or NCAR Graphics, here's what you need to do:

yellowstone/geyser/caldera

For general information about software on these systems, see:

http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/resources/yellowstone/software.

To get the current version of NCL or NCAR Graphics, type: 

   module load ncl

To get a different version of NCL/NCARG, say version 6.0.0, type: 

   module load ncl/6.0.0

DASG clusters (mirage, squall, gust, hail)

For general information about using these clusters, see:

http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/hss/dasg/index.php?id=faq/mirageFAQ.

You may already have the path to NCL set up on your system. Type: 

  ncl -V
to see if you get a version number and no error messages. If it says "ncl: Command not found", then you need to do the following:

  • Set the environment variable NCARG_ROOT to /fs/local
  • Add $NCARG_ROOT/bin to your PATH environment variable.

The above steps can be put inside one of your .* files in your home directory, like ".cshrc" or ".profile", or ".bashrc", so you don't have to type them every time you login.

First type: 

    echo $SHELL
to see what shell you are running.

/bin/tcsh or /bin/csh: 

   setenv NCARG_ROOT /fs/local
   setenv PATH $NCARG_ROOT/bin:$PATH

/bin/bash or /bin/ksh: 

   export NCARG_ROOT=/fs/local
   export PATH=$NCARG_ROOT/bin:$PATH
For more information on using NCAR's supercomputers, please visit the CISL High-end Computing page.