CoastWatch Utilities

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Latest Updates (Version 4.0.1)
• Source Code and Downloads
• Quick Start Guide

• Documents and Presentations

   

Overview

The CoastWatch Utilities read CoastWatch data files (NetCDF and HDF format) and contain graphical tools for interactive data viewing and command line tools for data processing.  The functions include:

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 and Registration - Data format conversions, compositing, generic variable math, data sampling, map projection resampling.

Graphics and Visualization- Interactive visualization/analysis, batch image rendering, animation, ancillary graphics…

The software runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.  The following are screenshots from the Mac version of the CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool (CDAT):

The following are sample animations produced by the cwanimate tool: 

Latest Updates (Version 4.0.1)

• The new tool cwanimate creates animations of data from either local files or datasets on ERDDAP, THREDDS, and OPeNDAP servers
• The --optimal option in cwcomposite now supports two new function types for selecting the optimization variable data value: minabs and maxabs for the minimum and maximum absolute value respectively.
• ACSPO geostationary data format reading is updated to handle the metadata conventions in version 2.90 files
• A new --console option to cwgscript starts a BeanShell script console for interactive testing of script snippets. 

See the User's Guide Appendix G for a full list of changes.

Source Code and Downloads

The source code is available on the CoastWatch Utilities GitHub site, and is also included in all distribution packages.  Binary installation packages and supplementary data are as follows:

Quick Start Guide

• Download and install the package for your operating system
• Download a data file, see the Product Search Tool for datasets.  For example, search for SST and download a data file from the ACSPO Global 0.02º Gridded Super-collated SST dataset (eg: via HTTP)

• Go through the steps in the Unit 2 of the online course to open and view your data file.  Export an image of your region of interest:

  

   

Documentation and Presentations

• Version 4.0.1 User’s Guide
• CoastWatch Utilities 2024 Updates(presentation slides)
• CoastWatch Utilities Online Tutorial Course
• Metadata documents:
  • Encoding CoastWatch Satellite Data in NetCDF using the CF Metadata Conventions
  • Comparison of Metadata Standards
• YouTube playlists:
  • CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool Demo
  • CoastWatch Utilities Updates

• Archive of previous presentations