Abstract:

Snow/ice stratigraphic profile is one of the traditional and important research fields in glaciology. The profile drawn by hand, however, is a tough job. Using the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Visual Basic (VB), we developed a Drawing Software for Snow/Ice Stratigraphic Profile (DSSISP). This paper introduces the functions, designing process and realizing methods of the drawing software. It presents the key techniques and aspects that should be payed attention to during the software development. Moreover, it also proposes the ideas for complete development of this drawing system. Legend database is a key aspect in the software designing. The major functions of the software include the stratigraphic profile drawing, edition and data management, which can help researchers draw the stratigraphic profile (including the scale, stratigraphic figure, text note and legend) quickly in a computer. In addition, the database technique is used to manage drawing data, which makes the figure drawing convenient and efficient. The drawing data is also convenient to be preserved, exchanged, processed and used.

Key words: snow/ice stratigraphy, drawing software, legend, database