Announcement: Release of SeaDAS 4.0

SeaDAS 4.0 is available for SGI and SUN platforms startingMay 12, 2000.

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SeaDAS 4.0 provides the user with the SeaWiFS processing programs used in the 3rd SeaWiFS processing. SeaDAS 4.0 marks a major departure from SeaDAS 3.3. The underlying SeaWiFS Level-2 processing program (l2gen) has been replaced by the multi-sensor Level-2 processing program (msl12) which allows the user to select a variable number of Level-2 output products from a set of 176 possible products.   The Level-3 processing programs (spacebin and timebin) have been generalized to accomodate Level-2 inputs files containing a variable number of products.  In addition, the spacebin and timebin programs were rewritten in C and FORTRAN.

The 3rd reprocessing has required data format changes in all of the SeaDAS data products (with the exception of the Level-1A data format) and also provides an expanded standard product suite.  The seadisp general display program provides display support for both the old and new SeaWiFS data formats.

Users should either reorder their Level-1A data from the Goddard DAAC, or renavigate their Level-1A files by running the Level-1 to Level-0 conversion program (l1atol0) followed by the Level-0 to Level-1 processing program (l1agen). This is the same process used by the SeaWiFS Project in regenerating the Level-1A files delivered to the DAAC.  Only renavigated GAC and LAC Level-1A data will be available at the Goddard DAAC.  Users will need to renavigate their HRPT data themselves.

As in the past, running the SeaWiFS processing programs in SeaDAS with all defaults set, will result in identical products to those available at the Goddard DAAC.

Attached is the announcement from the SeaWiFS Project detailing the scientific changes made to the SeaWiFS processing programs for the 3rd SeaWiFS reprocessing.
 

Major Changes from SeaDAS 3.3 (with 5 updates applied):

• General enhancements:
• All major SeaWiFS processing programs are now well-structured and written in C and FORTRAN (all mice and ratfor code has been removed).
• Upgraded from HDF 4.0r2 to HDF 4.1r1
• Upgraded to n32 support for SGI platforms
• IDL 5.2 and 5.3 officially supported
• IDL runtime support for both IDL 5.2 and IDL 5.3.
• Removal of conflict with DSP users. SeaDAS programs no longer use the DSPROOT environment variable.

 
• Processing program modifications:
• All processing programs provide improved navigation
• Level-1 processing program (l1agen/SWl01 version 3.0)
• Improved handling of noisy data
• Improved navigation processing  to reduce the seasonal variations in navigation accuracy
• Level-1B processing program (l1bgen)
• Enhanced to allow subscening and/or subsampling
• New Level-2 processing program (msl12)
• Provides the capability of the user selecting a variable number of Level-2 products from a full suite of approximately 176 possible products.
• Improved calibration and algorithms
• Accepts subscened and/or subsampled Level-1A input files.
• Provides 24 flags instead of 16 flags.
• Accepts either L1A or L1B data as input.
• Provides a standard multi-sensor Level-2 data format
• New Level-3 binned processing programs (spacebin & timebin)
• Enhanced to provide 4km as well as 9km binning resolution
• Accepts Level-2 input files containing a variable number of products
• Enhanced Level-3 mapped processing program (smigen)
• Provides many new standard and non-standard products
 
• General display program:
• Enhanced to display both new and old SeaWiFS data formats.
• Enhanced to display 32-bit flags

Warnings:

• The 'alternate value' concept is no longer being utilized in the Level-2 product
• The time-binned output filenames (ie *.x00, *.x01, etc) may not necessarily correspond to a specific product anymore if generating a non-standard suite of products.
• The subscene program no longer supports subscening Level-2 format files. However the Level-2 processing program now accepts subscened L1A input files.
• The SeaWiFS ancillary file formatting and quality control programs have been removed from SeaDAS. These include the ozone programs gridtovs, 03nrt and o3qc and the meterological programs metnrt and metqc.  The ancillary display program (ancqc) is still available.

Upcoming:

• Linux release for Red Hat Linux 6.0 (estimated date June 9,  2000)
• Planned for Update #001 (estimated date July 7, 2000)
• Full IDL runtime support with IDL included in SeaDAS package. (See Note below).
• MODIS display support for MODIS ocean products
• Land products
• Miscellaneous fixes and enhancements
  
  
Note: IDL Runtime support
 The SeaWiFS Project has purchased the right to distribute an unlimited number of IDL licenses with the SeaDAS package. This means that it would not be necessary to purchase IDL in order to run SeaDAS.  (Currently, SeaDAS 3.3p5 and SeaDAS 4.0 provide IDL runtime support for users who have purchased IDL runtime licenses and have installed IDL on their systems.)

See the SeaDAS web-site home page or anoymous ftp site for downloading and installation details:

website: http://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov

anonymous ftp: seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov in directory seadas

The SeaDAS Development Group
Karen S. Baith, Robert Lindsay & Jodi Humphreys
seadas@seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov

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Earth Observation Research Center Last Update: 03 June 2002

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