CoastWatch Utilities

Software Features

The CoastWatch Utilities let users work with earth science data created by NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch. Users can easily view and convert data in various formats: HDF 4, NOAA 1b, and NetCDF 4. The software has both interactive and batch processing tools. The functionality includes:

Information and Statistics - File contents, statistics computations on variables (for example min, max, mean, standard deviation), direct access to raw file and variable attributes.

Data Processing - Data format conversions, compositing, generic variable math, data sampling.

Graphics and Visualization - Interactive visualization/analysis, batch image rendering, ancillary graphics creation such as data coverage maps, grids, coastlines, land masks.

Registration and Navigation - Resampling of data from one projection to another, interactive generation of region masters, manual and automatic navigational correction, computation of solar and earth location angles.

Network - Data download and server status.

The CoastWatch Utilities are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

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Table of Contents

• Software Features
• New in Version 3.7.1 (build 1230)
• Screenshots
• Downloads
• Documentation
• Presentations

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New in Version 3.7.1 b1230

(Replaces version 3.7.0 (b107))

Updates:

• The user interface in CDAT was updated to better handle display scaling on Windows and Linux. This involved updating the user interface toolkit which now has a more uniform look across different platforms.
• The Java VM was updated to 17.0.2 on all platforms (Linux, Windows, and Mac) for bug fixes and security patches.
• The Java code documentation was updated for the latest Java virtual machine Javadoc tool.
• The User’s Guide and in-application help was updated to reflect the latest software updates.
• The CDAT file chooser was reorganized for easier data file selection. Now when opening a file, long variable names and units have more room for display.
• The CDAT file information window was enhanced to show more complete file contents. It also includes a new tab with the ability to search for text in metadata names and values.
• The cwcomposite, cwmath, and cwregister2 tools have new command line options --threads and --serial to control the amount of multithreading used for data processing.
• The render tool has a new hybrid rendering mode to combine color enhancements with composite color images. For hybrid mode rendering, the --composite and --enhance options are no longer mutually exclusive, and a new --hybridmask option specifies transparent pixel areas.
• A new standardized NOAA logo is now included as the default for plot legends. The new logo uses the official NOAA colors.
• Various command line tools were updated for better info/verbose logging and for clearer and shorter error messages.
• The cwdownload and cwstatus tools were deprecated and removed. These tools have been replaced with various methods of downloading data from the CoastWatch node websites such as THREDDS, ERDDAP, HTTP, FTP, etc.

Note that the Java Virtual Machine (VM) may have been updated.   If you're using the Linux "no-VM" package, you'll need a VM  (recommended version is OpenJDK 17 or higher) from https://jdk.java.net/.

See the User's Guide Appendix G for a list of major updates and bug fixes.

 

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Screenshots

The following are screenshots from the CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool (CDAT):

 

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Downloads

Download the packages below. For help with installation, consult the Installation Notes section of the User's Guide. Please submit errors or bug reports to coastwatch.info@noaa.gov. A MD5 checksum for the packages listed below is provided: md5sums

 

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Documentation

• CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool Demo
• CoastWatch Software Library and Utilities User’s Guide Version 3.7.1
• Encoding CoastWatch Satellite Data in NetCDF using the CF Metadata Conventions
• Comparison of Metadata Standards

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Presentations

2021

The CoastWatch Utilities, presented at the CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Annual Meeting, September 2021, East Coast Node, Virtual Meeting. Topics covered: Overview, Improvements [NetCDF I/O, Registration, Documentation, Cloud Enhancements].  (CW_Utils_2021.pdf)

2019

The CoastWatch Utilities, presented at the CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Annual Meeting, May 2019, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Topics covered: speed improvements, software development process and functionality, terrain correction. (cw_utilities_2019.pdf)

2017

The CoastWatch Utilities, presented at the CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Annual Meeting, July/August 2017, Santa Cruz, California. Topics covered: historical data products/distribution/software, software development process and functionality, packages available, latest beta version. (cw_utilities_2017.pdf)

CDAT Demo Annual Meeting, topics covered include: software distribution page, opening data files, enhancement & palettes, overlays, surveys, masking, full screen mode, export to PNG and PDF.

2016

The CoastWatch Utilities, presented at the CoastWatch/OceanWatch Meeting, January 2016, Miami, Florida. Topics covered: current software functionality and packages, development history, code architecture, and in-progress features. ( cw_utilities_2016.pdf)

2009

CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool: Software Design Review, presented to the CoastWatch Program Manager, central operations team, and node operations managers, January 2008. Topics covered: proposed software design including simplified user interface, data aggregation, 4D-aware interface, tile mode and animation support, and geographic feature support.

2008

The CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool: Status and Future, presented at the CoastWatch Node Managers Meeting, August 2008, Victoria, BC. Topics covered: history of CDAT and its ongoing development, new features in release 3.2.2, current user stats, future release ideas.

2007

The CoastWatch Utilities: Ten Years in the Making, presented at the CoastWatch Operations Managers Meeting, June 2007, Annapolis, Maryland. Topics covered: General information about the utilities, features and statistics for the current release (3.2.1), ideas for future releases.

Ad-hoc Processing with the CoastWatch Utilities, presented at the CoastWatch Operations Managers Meeting, June 2007, Annapolis, Maryland. Topics covered: Extracting information from data files (metadata, statistics, sampling), data processing (reprojection, math), custom code (data interfaces, file interfaces).

CoastWatch Data in Google Earth: A How-to Guide, presented at the CoastWatch Operations Managers Meeting, June 2007, Annapolis, Maryland. Topics covered: Google Earth features in comparison to CDAT, preparing data images and markup code, demonstration with AVHRR swath and GOES SST data.

2005

The CoastWatch Utilities Version 3.2: CoastWatch Data Made Easy, presented at the CoastWatch Node Managers Meeting, October 2005, Pacific Grove, California. Topics covered: Common tasks performed by the utilities, types of documentation available, details on software development (requirements and users), demonstration (not included).

2003

The CoastWatch Utilities Version 3, presented at the CoastWatch Node Managers Meeting, October 2003, Glen Arbor, Michigan. Topics covered: Software requirements (website, research, product development), implementation details (survey of all utilities), future work to be done.

The CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool, presented at the CoastWatch Node Managers Meeting, October 2003, Glen Arbor, Michigan. Topics covered: Target user groups, functionality (data import/export, display, annotation, statistics, preferences), demonstration (not included), future work to be done.

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