10. Release Notes

10.1. Roadmap to Version 2.1

  • Collaboration with the PyTroll project will change almost everything...again.

    • The PyTroll and Polar2Grid teams have been working on a new interface for the mpop package that will allow greater flexibility and easier use by Polar2Grid.
    • Most python code in Polar2Grid will be absorbed by mpop (either added or use existing).
    • The remaining roadmap bullets are subject to change based on the PyTroll/Polar2Grid merger.

  • Further fornav updates

    • Move all module logic to C++ and remove cython dependency for this module (simple one function cython wrapper should be easy to remove)
    • Try rewriting in either opencl or use openmp for multiprocess work, but we’re getting to the point that fornav is not the slowest part of fornav (intermediate disk use)

  • Consider linking directly to PROJ.4 C library for ll2cr (removing pyproj dependency for ll2cr) to make it faster

  • Update rescaling with cython wrapper (test performance before committing to this)

    • Needs change of clipping and masking logic so that its a decorator and can be easily excluded from cython code (which would use internal logic for those steps)

  • Add proper handling for product data being kept in memory (should speed up quite a few things)

    • For better handling of in-memory data, should either let the user choose or determine it based on available memory
    • Frontend’s could choose logical default (VIIRS should probably write to disk, DR-RTV should stay in memory)
    • Glue script can use memory analysis to come up with default but can be forced by command line argument

  • Python 3 Compatibility

10.2. Version 2.0 (Coming Soon)

  • Rewrite of entire internal structure and behavior of polar2grid (Frontends, Backends, Remapping)
  • Most frontends (VIIRS, MODIS, etc) are filename independent and try to determine type of file by internal structure
  • Frontends now do operations based on what “products” are requested and return a “scene” object
  • The polar2grid.core.meta module is added to provide structure to intermediate steps (Frontend -> Remap -> Backend) with the classes it offers
  • Backends now operate on a gridded scene as a whole (with option for operating on one product at a time for some backends)
  • A compositor role was added to provide a more flexible method of creating true/false color and other composited images
  • ll2cr rewritten in python and cython (C-like python) to be faster and more accurate
  • Grid determination has been essentially removed since “data fits in grid” decisions don’t make sense unless you are in projection/grid space (ll2cr serves this purpose now)
  • fornav has been rewritten to be accessed directly from python. The ms2gt version of fornav is no longer used.
  • The ms2gt version of fornav was also modified to be faster and is still destributed with the software bundle (for this release only).
  • GPD grids and support for them has been removed. PROJ.4 is more flexible, more widely used, and can actually support the AWIPS grids better.
  • Python setup.py files updated to better meet common practice of other python projects (READMEs, classifiers, etc)
  • Major changes to rescaling so that it can be specified independent of output data type and “increment_by_one”
  • Removed AWIPS I support due to National Weather Service using AWIPS II from now on
  • Added basic ACSPO and MIRS frontends
  • Added HDF5 backend

10.3. Version 1.2 (2014-08-16)

  • Fixed VIIRS CREFL C code and added custom version to repository (viirs_crefl)
  • Added ability to use ‘deg’ units on grid origin definitions
  • Latlong grids use degrees instead of radians (affects grid configurations and intermediate values in code)
  • Added wgs84_fit_250 grid
  • AWIPS grids “fixed” to actually align properly in AWIPS. The grid specification says ellipsoid earth, but my results say spherical.

10.4. Version 1.1 (2013-02-13)

  • Added MODIS Frontend (limited number of bands)
  • Added CREFL Frontend (including true color glue script)
  • Changed default geotiff data type to unsigned 8-bit integer
  • Added option to provide user created grid configuration files
  • NinJo backend added for DWD added
  • Version 1.1.7 (2013-07-07)
    • Non-TC geolocation used as backup option for VIIRS Frontend
    • Fixed major bug when creating true colors (Issue #81). If the high resolution data resolved to a different dynamic grid than the low resolution data then a true color could not be made.
  • Version 1.1.6 (2013-05-31)
    • Fixed frontends handling of symbolic links for files
  • Version 1.1.5 (2013-05-28)
    • Various CREFL fixes
    • Added MODIS geotiffs
    • Added MODIS 250m bands

10.5. Version 1.0 (2013-01-25)

  • Object oriented Frontend, Backend, and Rescaling
  • Python version of ll2cr (still uses ms2gt fornav)
  • Geotiff Backend
  • Start of developer’s guide in documentation