Changes log

 

Version 5.0 of SCC

The new SCC version (released on 08/11/2018) brings many important updates and enhancements:

 

1) New SCC workflow

The SCC workflow has been modified by including 4 new calculus modules: HiRELPP, Cloudmask, ELIC and ELQUICK

• 1.a) HiRELPP module ingests raw input data and generate high resolution RCS timeseries (un-calibrated)
• 1.b) Cloudmask module ingests the output of HiRELPP module and generates cloudmask as output
• 1.c) ELPP module uses the generated cloudmask to skip (or label as cloud) in the time/vertical integration cloud contaminated signals
• 1.d) ELDA module takes into account cloud information in calculating optical products and provides the constants used to calibrate the optical products. Please note that calibration constants are calculated by ELDA only for certain product types (more information: https://earlinetforum.imaa.cnr.it/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=275)
• 1.e) ELIC module calibrates HiRELPP and ELPP products using the constants calculated by ELDA. It produces high and low calibrated high resolution products consisting in total attenuated backscatter timeseries
• 1.f) ELQUICK module generates quicklooks images from the high resolution ELIC products.The generated quicklook images will be available on a separated interface that will be available soon.

 

2) SCC product file format

All the SCC products are in NetCDF format and are CF compliant. To meet the CF compliance we had to modify the NetCDF structure of all the SCC products with respect to the old ones. This means that your reading software for the SCC products should be changed accordingly.In particular, the optical products generated by the SCC v5.0 are different from the EARLINET files we have used up to now. The new format is the same we have used for the publication of the data on CERA database. For the moment such files CANNOT be uploaded on the EARLINET database because it still requires the old format. Anyway we are going to release the new version of EARLINET database (presumably in January 2019) that will accept the new format only.

IMPORTANT: only the SCC product file format is changed. The raw input file format is still the same. This means no specific modifications are needed in your own converter to generate input file for the new SCC version.

 

3) Other enhancements

• 3.a) Web interface has been improved in terms of user-friendliness. Now it is possible to define different versions of a lidar system and to each lidar version it is possible to link several lidar configurations.
• 3.b) It is possible to calculate molecular atmosphere using model data (ECMWF, ICON_IGLO, GDAS). Model data are taken from CloudNET. To use this new option you should first check (using the SCC web inteface) that your station the field "Cloudnet Station ID" is set. If it is set the calculation of molecular atmosphere using model data can be activated by setting in the input file: Molecular_Calc=2.I would like to thanks Ewan O'Connor that offered us this very interesting option. The update does not break any existing configuration.All the configurations and measurements already uploaded before the updating should be found on the server. In order to no start the re-analysis of all the submitted measurements with the new SCC version automatically, the HiRELPP flag has been manually set to failed status for all the measurements. As a consequence, all the products on the servers are still the ones previously generated running the previous SCC version (v4.0). It is possible to re-calculate those products using the new version of the SCC (recommended). In this case, all the previous products will be overwritten! In order to keep the own old products a back-up of them is necessary before trying to re-run the new SCC version.

Please, note that in order to generate the new products (HiRELPP, Cloumask, ELIC and ELQUICK), it is necessary to define for the configuration(s) an high resolution product, following some basic instructions on how to do that.
Please report problems or suggestions on the SCC forum available at: https://earlinetforum.imaa.cnr.it/viewforum.php?f=21