wxguy / pccora

PC-CORA parser for Python

PCCORA

PC-CORA parser for Python. Supports the format described here https://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ukmo-rad-hires/pc-coradata.html (accessed at 2015-12-05).

This format is used for radiosonde data https://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ukmo-rad-hires/. According to Wikipedia,

"A radiosonde (Sonde is French and German for probe) is a battery-powered telemetry instrument package carried into the atmosphere usually by a weather balloon that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver."

This format is produced by old Vaisala http://www.vaisala.com equipments. Newer data is probably available in the NetCDF.

History

I was asked by a co-worker to look at some Python code with a PC-CORA parser. However, he also needed some further work on finding these files and outputting the contents as CSV. Decided to write a module for PC-CORA inspired by the original script [1], using Python3, OO and packing as a Python package to be distributed to the PYPI https://pypi.python.org/pypi.

[1] https://github.com/vnoel/pycode/blob/master/pccora.py

Example

>>> from pccora import PCCORAParser
>>> pccora_parser = PCCORAParser()
>>> pccora_parser.parse_file('./123456789.EDT')
>>> print(pccora_parser.get_header())
>>> print(pccora_parser.get_identification())
>>> print(pccora_parser.get_data())

Obtaining Data

There are datasets available at the CEDA website http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/ (Centre for Environmental Data Archival), however, access is restricted.

NOAA's ESRL http://www.esrl.noaa.gov (Earth System Research Laboratory) has an FTP server with some data in the the old PC-CORA sounding data format. Just search for FTP for instructions on how to access the Physical Sciences Division FTP server. Some valid files can be found at /psd3/cruises/AERO_1999/RHB/balloon/Raw (checked on 2016-01-17).

Requirements

Python 2 or Python 3, and the construct library https://github.com/construct/construct.

Installation

pip install pccora

Or, to use the bleeding edge version, git clone this repository, and have a look at the scripts folders for an example how to use the module from within a local folder. You may have to uninstall the pip module first.

The PYPI URL is https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pccora.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.