Available observation converter programs

The DART/observations/obs_converters directory contains a variety of converter programs to read various external formats and convert the observations into the format required by DART.

Each directory has at least one converter:

• AIRS: AIRS and AMSU

• AURA: See DART/observations/obs_converters/AURA

• Aviso+/CMEMS: Aviso+/CMEMS Observations

• Ameriflux: PROGRAM level4_to_obs

• BATS: BATS

• CHAMP: CHAMP

• cice: PROGRAM cice_to_obs

• CNOFS: See DART/observations/obs_converters/CNOFS

• CONAGUA: CONAGUA

• COSMOS: PROGRAM COSMOS_to_obs

• CrocoLake: CrocoLake

• DWL: PROGRAM dwl_to_obs

• GMI: GMI Brightness Temperatures

• GOES: NOAA GOES-R Series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Level 1b Radiances

• GPSPW: GPSPW

• GRACE: See DART/observations/obs_converters/GRACE

• GSI2DART: GSI2DART

• GTSPP: GTSPP Observations

• MADIS: MADIS Data Ingest System

• MIDAS: PROGRAM MIDAS_to_obs

• MODIS: PROGRAM MOD15A2_to_obs

• MODIS: PROGRAM MOD29E1D_to_obs

• MPD: See DART/observations/obs_converters/MPD

• NCEP: (prepbufr -> ascii) PROGRAM prepbufr

• NCEP: (ascii -> obs_seq) PROGRAM create_real_obs

• ROMS: ROMS observations to DART observation sequences

• SIF: PROGRAM SIF_to_obs_netcdf

• SSEC: SSEC Data Center

• SST: PROGRAM sst_to_obs, oi_sst_to_obs

• SSUSI: SSUSI F16 EDR-DSK format to observation sequence converters

• WOD: WOD Observations

• gnd_gps_vtec: GND GPS VTEC

• GPS: GPS Observations

• ok_mesonet: Oklahoma Mesonet MDF Data

• QuikSCAT: QuikSCAT SeaWinds Data

• Radar: Radar observations

• snow: PROGRAM snow_to_obs

• Text: PROGRAM text_to_obs

• text_GITM: See DART/observations/obs_converters/text_GITM

• tpw: Total Precipitable Water Observations

• Tropical Cyclones: PROGRAM tc_to_obs

• Var (little-r): PROGRAM littler_tf_dart

• Var (radar): PROGRAM rad_3dvar_to_dart

There are also a couple utilities of note:

• Even Sphere - a utility for generating evenly-spaced observation locations that can then be used in a perfect model experiment.

• Obs Error - modules that specify observation errors based on what is used by ECMWF and NCEP

In addition the following external program produces DART observation sequence files:

• Observation Processing And Wind Synthesis (OPAWS): OPAWS can process NSF NCAR Dorade (sweep) and NSF NCAR EOL Foray (netCDF) radar data. It analyzes (grids) data in either two-dimensions (on the conical surface of each sweep) or three-dimensions (Cartesian). Analyses are output in netCDF, Vis5d, and/or DART (Data Assimilation Research Testbed) formats.

For generating synthetic observations, see the documentation for the program create_obs_sequence. You can also generate observation files based on text input. See the documentation for the PROGRAM text_to_obs. Or for simulating a large complex observing system, you can use the DART library routines in a Fortran program to compute the observation information and have the DART routines write the output file.

To learn how to run a model with a set of observations that have only locations, types, and times, and have the forward operators compute the observation values, see the documentation for the program perfect_model_obs.