Constructing integrated models: a scheduler to execute coupled components

A seamless construction, coupling and modification of model components is important for the development and assessment of integrated models. However, present software frameworks are either tailored to component construction or to component coupling, whereas a consolidated environment is desired. The frameworks also require profound knowledge in system programming languages, and offer limited generic support for model assessment. We present a software framework for a straightforward construction, coupling, execution and analysis of model components. In this paper, we focus on the treatment of temporal dependencies between components of fixed and variable time step lengths as well as components with confined lifetime. By utilising the high-level scripting language Python, non-software developers are able to conduct exploratory model construction and analysis