NdEdit is a highly interactive four-dimensional utility which allows a user to graphically view the locations of selected data sets in space and time (longitude, latitude, depth, time), and then refine the view using a set of graphical filters. For example, a researcher can define a narrow filter band in the time dimension to restrict the number of data points shown in the latitude-longitude view to this time domain. Other tools allow data selection for further processing by other applications. For example, the section tool allows a researcher to drag a multi-segment band (user-settable width) through a data set to create custom vertical sections or select data along a particular depth contour.

NdEdit was developed in the Java programming language as a JavaBean software component which allows NdEdit to be incorporated into other Java applications. This paper describes how NdEdit was used to extend two existing stand-alone Java applications; Climate Data Portal and Java OceanAtlas. In Climate Data Portal, NdEdit acts as a data filtering tool for metadata returned from multiple, geographically separated, databases of oceanographic profile and time series data. Java OceanAtlas is an application for visualization of oceanographic vertical sections. In Java OceanAtlas, NdEdit allows data selection and custom section creation of profile data from PMEL's EPIC data archives. See http://www.epic.noaa.gov/cdp for more information about Climate Data Portal and http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/joa for more information about Java OceanAtlas and EPIC.