Kameleon is a software suite that is being developed at the CCMC to address the difficulty in analyzing and disseminating the varying output formats of space weather model data. Through the employment of a comprehensive data format standardization methodology, Kameleon allows heterogeneous model output to be stored uniformly in a common science data format. The converted files contain both the original model output as well as additional metadata elements to create platform independent and self-descriptive data files. To facilitate model data dissemination, data reuse, and code reuse – the Kameleon access and interpolation library provides direct access to both the model data as well as the embedded metadata.

In a nutshell, the Kameleon converter reads model output data and re-writes the data into a standard format. The Kameleon access/interpolation library reads data already converted by Kameleon providing a high level interface to the data.

Current Feature/Functionality Chart

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The Kameleon Software Suite began life as two packages written in C. The Kameleon Converter Package and the Kameleon Access/Interpolation Library. Both converter and interpolator packages evolved, and were eventually re-written with successor distributions now in JAVA and C++ respectively.

The suite now consists of:

1. Original Kameleon Converter ( C )
2. Generation 2 KameleonJ/Kameleon6 Converter ( JAVA )
3. Original Kameleon Interpolator ( C )
4. Generation 2 Kameleon+ Interpolator ( C++,Python)

Go to the main Kameleon-plus site to get started with the Gen 2 interpolators.

• If you are a developer and want to add new model conversion functionality to the Kameleon Converter, you can use either the C or JAVA version depending on what language you are most comfortable with. The CCMC is investing primarily in KameleonJ/Kameleon6 development, but we are not opposed to new external development activities/branches that extend the utility, features, functionality of the original version.

• If you have model(s) and/or data and are interested in writing directly to the Kameleon supported format, please make sure all standard global and variable meta-data is created and compatible data structures are used. Please note that a formal specification document is currently under development for this...

• If you want to add new access/interpolation support to Kameleon, we recommend development using the Kameleon+ (C++) version of the library as a baseline. The Kameleon+ version is expected to receive the bulk of both CCMC and community support

• If you already have Kameleon compatible data and want to read it, you should first verify that the KameleonJ/Kameleo6 version supports the model output you have. If it does, we recommend you use the KameleonJ/Kameleo6 version. However, if the original Kameleon access/interpolation library is the only version that supports the data you have and/or you are already comfortable with the original version, please feel free to use the original distribution.

Please note that the CCMC is investing primarily in the new generations of KameleonJ/Kameleon6 and Kameleon+.