read_multi_tcf

The read_multi_tcf module is one of a limited set of Time_Data modules. These modules are specifically designed to create models and animations of data that changes over time. This type of data can result from water table elevation and/or chemical measurements taken at discrete times or output from Groundwater simulations or other 3D time-domain simulations.

The read_multi_tcf module creates a field using one or more Time Control Files (.TCF). Click here for an example of a TCF fileand a description of the format.

The read_multi_tcf module creates a mesh grid with the interpolated data from a user specifed number of TCF files (n). It outputs the first data component from the first (n-1) TCF files and all of the time interpolated data components from the nth TCF file.

For example, if you were trying to create a time animation of the union of 3 analytes (e.g. Benzene, Toluene & Xylene), read_multi_tcf allows you to select all three separate TCF files.   Only the first data component from Benzene.tcf (nominally the concentration of benzene) is output as the new first data component.  The first data component from Toluene.tcf (nominally the concentration of toluene) is output as the new second data component.  All of the data components from Xylene.tcf are then output (typically xylene, confidence_xylene, uncertainty_xylene, Geo_Layer, Material_ID, Elevation, etc.).  This allows you to explode layers and do other typical subsetting and processing operations on the output of this module.

The TCF files should be created using identical grids with date ranges that overlap the time period of interest.

read_multi_tcf effectively includes an inter_time_step module internally in that it performs the interpolation between appropriate pairs of the files/data_components specified in the TCF file. Its internal structure only requires reading two successive time steps rather than the complete listing of time steps normally represented in a time_data field.