SeaDAS 6.0 Released

[obdaac_admin]

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                            SeaDAS 6.0 - Release Notes (12/10/09)
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SeaDAS 6.0 contains all of the current processing programs (and source code) used for the OBPG's Ocean Color Reprocessing 2009:
 https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/reprocessing/r2009/

This release includes the updated MODIS Collection 6 l1bgen_modisa and l1bgen_modist processing programs:
  http://www.mcst.ssai.biz/mcstweb/L1B/Collection_6_Info.html

As the OBPG has yet to reprocess data from the MODIS instruments, MODIS support in SeaDAS is an interim R2009 version.  However, it is likely that only the L1B LUTs and vicarious calibration will change.

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This marks the last major release of the SeaDAS IDL GUI and display system. In order to improve the GUI, visualization, and analysis components, a new Java-based version of SeaDAS is now under development. It is envisioned that this new Java version will still provide seamless access to the IDL scientific environment. Future releases of the IDL-based SeaDAS will be for processing system maintenance only. Onward and upward!
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Supported platforms for this release are:
-Linux
-Intel Macintosh OS X 10.5/10.6
-PowerPC Macintosh OS X 10.5

Major changes in this release include:
* Added support for Intel Mac OS X 10.6.
* Dropped support for Intel and PowerPC Mac OS X 10.4.
* Updated processing programs coincide with Ocean Color Reprocessing 2009:
    l1bgen_modisa 6.1.3b
    l1bgen_modist 6.1.2b
    l2gen 6.1.9
    l2bin 2.3.3
    l3bin 3.20
    smigen 4.13

* New processing programs and scripts:
    get_anc - replaces ms_met.csh, ms_ozone.csh, ms_oisst.csh (see below)
    l1asubset_modis - strips out non-ocean bands (see below)
    l3gen - manipulates L3 files to create a new L3 file

* Defunct scripts:
    ms_met.csh, ms_ozone.csh, ms_oisst.csh - replaced by getanc

* A new IOP options tab has been added to the l2gen GUI to facilitate the creation of IOPs and IOP-dependent products with l2gen

* The SeaDAS build environment has been simplified and improved including:
  -the One Linux to rule them all approach is now being used
  -build templates have been standardized across the three supported OS's
  -gcc/g++/gfortran is now supported along with commercial Intel compilers
  -MAC OS X compilers have been upgraded to current GNU and Intel compilers
  -the lib3 HDF4 and HDF5 distributions have been upgraded

* As of SeaDAS 6.0 we are providing just one generic SeaDAS Linux distribution. This distribution has been tested on various versions of CentOS, Fedora, and Ubuntu using both Intel and AMD processors,  and will likely run on most other Linuxes. We hope this work to unify the many Linux flavours will allow us to continue to improve the SeaDAS build environment so we can begin to use a more efficient and powerful integrated development environment. At the same time this should facilitate users who wish to rebuild any code themselves.  We do expect a few incompatibilities in the beginning but we are hoping these continue to decline as standardization goes forward.  If you encounter problems please let us know!

* The new get_anc ancillary determination and retrieval script is more efficient and robust than the old ms_met.csh, ms_ozone.csh, ms_oisst.csh scripts. getanc queries an OBPG server and optionally downloads the optimal ancillary data files for Level-1 to Level-2 processing.

* The new l1asubset_modis binary strips non-ocean bands out of Level-1A files for oceans processing. This greatly reduces file size and speeds up processing.

Enjoy,
The SeaDAS Development Group