The purpose of the MED module is to provide a standard for storing and recovering computer data associated to numerical meshes and fields, and to facilitate the exchange between codes and solvers.

The persistent data storage is based upon HDF format (like CGNS, a standard developed by Boeing and NASA in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamic).

MED also provides structures to hold data on meshes and fields. These structures are exchanged between solvers, hide the communication level (CORBA or MPI), and offer persistence (read/write in .med files).