On a python module for PDE-based numerical modelling

The escript package is an extension of python. It provides an easy-to-use programming environment for numerical simulations based on the solution of partial differential equations (PDEs), while at the same time providing for fast solution of large models by performing time-intensive calculations in C++ and C. The escript functionality allows the user to implement high-level numerical schemes to reduce coupled, nonlinear, time-dependent PDEs to linear, steady PDEs that have to be solved in each time and/or iteration step. The PDEs are then solved by our finley PDE solver library. The layer of abstraction provided by escript allows an implementation which is independent from particular discretization schemes, PDE solver libraries, their data structures, and the computing platform itself. In the paper we will briefly outline the basic concepts of escript, illustrate its usage for modelling seismic wave propagation and discuss some parallelization issues with OpenMP and MPI