  We analyse the SM97 partial wave amplitudes for nucleon--nucleon (NN)
scattering to 2.5 GeV, in which resonance and meson production effects are
evident for energies above pion production threshold. Our analyses are based
upon boson exchange or quantum inversion potentials with which the
sub-threshold data are fit perfectly. Above 300 MeV they are extrapolations, to
which complex short ranged Gaussian potentials are added in the spirit of the
optical models of nuclear physics and of diffraction models of high energy
physics. The data to 2.5 GeV are all well fit. The energy dependences of these
Gaussians are very smooth save for precise effects caused by the known $\Delta$
and N$^\star$ resonances. With this approach, we confirm that the geometrical
implications of the profile function found from diffraction scattering are
pertinent in the regime 300 MeV to 2.5 GeV and that the overwhelming part of
meson production comes from the QCD sector of the nucleons when they have a
separation of their centres of 1 to 1.2 fm. This analysis shows that the
elastic NN scattering data above 300 MeV can be understood with a local
potential operator as well as has the data below 300 MeV.
