radolan

[//]: # {#mainpage}

This is a C++ library for reading and working with the RADOLAN data format of the German Weather Forecast Service (DWD). Also contains methods for converting to and from the RADOLAN coordinate system or grid, as well as conversion routines into NetCDF and Shapefile.

Information https://git.meteo.uni-bonn.de/attachments/download/2/RADOLAN_RADVOR_OP_Komposit_format_pdf.pdf

Installation

Dependencies

• boost
• libz
• hdf5
• netcdf4 (C++ bindings included)
• Shapelib (optional)

Use your platform specific package managers to install those dependencies. CMake will look for the dependencies in the usual locations (/usr or /usr/local). If you install dependencies in different locations, please consider the CMAKE documentation and adjust the file CMakeLists.txt accordingly.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/meteo-ubonn/radolan.git
cd radolan
cmake .
make install

Conda Environment

libradolan is also available within the conda-forge. Download the latest Miniconda for your OS (currently linux and MacOSX) and create a fresh environment:

$ conda config --add channels conda-forge
$ conda create -n radolan libradolan boost --yes
$ source activate radolan

Note, shapelib is not available at the moment within the conda environment.

Library and ececutables

The project produces a libradolan, which is installed to /usr/local/lib together with it's headers at /usr/local/include. In addition, the following executables are produced:

radolan2netcdf

This command converts a RADOLAN file into a NetCDF file following the CF-Metadata convention (v1.6). See here: http://cfconventions.org/

radolan2shapefile

If shapelib was detected during the cmake step, this executable is installed as well. It converts RADOLAN files into .shp files. You can choose between polygons (radar 'pixels' are actually polygons) or points (center of the radar pixel) and with- or without the scan value.

How to use this

The following, simple example will read a radolan file, print out header information and a simple ASCII representation of the file to console:

#include <radolan/radolan.h>
#include <radolan/radolan_utils.h>

using namespace Radolan;

int main(int argc, char** argv)  {
    RDScan* scan = RDAllocateScan();
    if (RDReadScan(argv[1], scan, true)) {
        RDPrintHeaderInformation(scan);
        RDPrintScan(scan,20,20);
        RDFreeScan(scan);
    }
}