<s>
The	O
Grid	B-Application
Analysis	I-Application
and	I-Application
Display	I-Application
System	I-Application
(	O
GrADS	B-Application
)	O
is	O
an	O
interactive	O
desktop	B-Device
tool	O
that	O
is	O
used	O
for	O
easy	O
access	O
,	O
manipulation	O
,	O
and	O
visualization	O
of	O
earth	O
science	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
format	O
of	O
the	O
data	O
may	O
be	O
either	O
binary	O
,	O
GRIB	B-Application
,	O
NetCDF	B-Application
,	O
or	O
HDF-SDS	O
(	O
Scientific	O
Data	O
Sets	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
has	O
been	O
implemented	O
worldwide	O
on	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
commonly	O
used	O
operating	B-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
and	O
is	O
freely	O
distributed	O
over	O
the	O
Internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
uses	O
a	O
4-Dimensional	O
data	O
environment	O
:	O
longitude	O
,	O
latitude	O
,	O
vertical	O
level	O
,	O
and	O
time	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Data	O
sets	O
are	O
placed	O
within	O
the	O
4-D	O
space	O
by	O
use	O
of	O
a	O
data	B-Application
descriptor	I-Application
file	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
interprets	O
station	O
data	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
gridded	O
data	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
grids	O
may	O
be	O
regular	O
,	O
non-linearly	O
spaced	O
,	O
Gaussian	O
,	O
or	O
of	O
variable	O
resolution	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Operations	O
are	O
executed	O
interactively	O
by	O
entering	O
FORTRAN-like	O
expressions	O
at	O
the	O
command	O
line	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Data	O
may	O
be	O
displayed	O
using	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
graphical	O
techniques	O
:	O
line	O
and	O
bar	O
graphs	O
,	O
scatter	O
plots	O
,	O
smoothed	O
contours	O
,	O
shaded	O
contours	O
,	O
streamlines	B-Application
,	O
wind	O
vectors	O
,	O
grid	O
boxes	O
,	O
shaded	O
grid	O
boxes	O
,	O
and	O
station	O
model	O
plots	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Graphics	O
may	O
be	O
output	O
in	O
PostScript	B-Language
or	O
image	O
formats	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
provides	O
geophysically	O
intuitive	O
defaults	O
,	O
but	O
the	O
user	O
has	O
the	O
option	O
to	O
control	O
all	O
aspects	O
of	O
graphics	O
output	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
has	O
a	O
programmable	O
interface	O
(	O
scripting	B-Language
language	I-Language
)	O
that	O
allows	O
for	O
sophisticated	O
analysis	O
and	O
display	O
applications	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GrADS	B-Application
can	O
be	O
run	O
in	O
batch	B-General_Concept
mode	I-General_Concept
,	O
and	O
the	O
scripting	B-Language
language	I-Language
facilitates	O
using	O
GrADS	B-Application
to	O
do	O
long	O
overnight	O
batch	B-General_Concept
jobs	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
C-language	O
Python	O
extension	O
for	O
GrADS	B-Application
called	O
GradsPy	O
was	O
introduced	O
in	O
version	O
2.2.1	O
.	O
</s>
