rpgPy 0.9.0

Cython code for reading binary files from RPG cloud radar.

rpgPy

RpgPy is a Python / Cython software for reading RPG cloud radar Level 0 and Level 1 binary files and converting to netCDF4.

Installation

From PyPI

$ python3 -m pip install rpgpy

NOTE: You need to have a C-compiler because Cython code is compiled locally during the rpgPy installation. If you get an error about missing Python.h, you need to install the missing header files with $ sudo apt install python3-dev (or similar).

From source

$ git clone  https://github.com/actris-cloudnet/rpgpy/
$ cd rpgpy/
$ python3 -m venv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
(venv) $ python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
(venv) $ python3 -m pip install .
(venv) $ python3 setup.py build_ext --inplace

Usage

Reading RPG binary file

>>> from rpgpy import read_rpg
>>> header, data = read_rpg('rpg_file.LV0')

By default, the header and data dictionary key names are taken from the RPG manual. Optionally, more explicit key names can be chosen:

>>> header, data = read_rpg('rpg_file.LV0', rpg_names=False)

Converting single file to single netCDF4

>>> from rpgpy import rpg2nc
>>> rpg2nc('rpg_file.LV0', 'rpg_file.nc')

This works for both Level 0 and Level 1 files.

In addition to the default global attributes, it is possible to provide additional ones via a dictionary:

>>> attr = {'attr1': 'foo', 'attr2': 42}
>>> rpg2nc('rpg_file.LV0', 'rpg_file.nc', global_attr=attr)

Converting multiple files to single netCDF4

Several RPG files can be concatenated to singe netCDF file using wildcard. With Level 0 data, this can lead to a very large netCDF file.

>>> rpg2nc('/path/to/files/*.LV0', 'huge_file.nc')

Converting multiple files to corresponding netCDF4 files

Several RPG files can be converted to corresponding individual netCDF4 files using rpg2nc_multi function. Every file with extension .LV0, .lv0, .LV1 or .lv1 in every subdirectory of the specified path will be converted.
Optionally, the user can exclude Level 0 files by switching the argument of include_lv0 parameter to False.

>>> from rpgpy import rpg2nc_multi
>>> rpg2nc_multi('/path/to/myfiles', include_lv0=True, base_name"foo")

If no path is made explicit, the function will by default take as argument the current directory and write the converted files in it.
If the parameter base_name is specified, the function will rename the new files as basename_oldname.

Tests

Run unit tests:

(venv) $ pytest

Run end-to-end tests:

(venv) $ for f in tests/e2e/*/main.py; do $f; done

Performance

For reading RPG binary files, depending on the radar settings, RpgPy is roughly 20-30 times faster than equivalent native Python or Matlab implementations.

License

MIT