Output files

Filenames

All files output by ORAC use a common root file name (determined within the preprocessor and passed to the main processor as an argument) followed by appropriate extensions. The root file name is for single file processing,

Project_Institute_Sensor_ProcessorV#_Platform_Procdate_Obsdate_Version

For chunked file processing,

Project_Institute_Sensor_Chunknum-Start-End_ProcessorV#_Platform_Procdate_Obsdate_Version

These fields are,

• Project: A brief description of the purpose of the file, such as the research project it was generated for. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument.
• Institute: The institution that produced the file. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument.
• Sensor: The satellite imager being processed. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument.
• Chunknum: The number of the chunk processed. Increases from 1.
• Start: The initial latitude contained in this chunk.
• End: The final latitude contained in this chunk.
• Processor: The name of the software processing the data. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument, though will almost certainly be "ORAC".
• V#: The letter "V" followed by the version number of the processing software. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument, though test_preproc.sh sets it to equal the current revision number of the SVN repository.
• Platform: The satellite platform that the imager is located on. Determined from "Sensor" by the code.
• Procdate: The date and time that the file was processed, printed as YYYYMMDDHHmmSS.
• Obsdate: The date and time of the observation processed, printed as YYYYMMDDHHmmSS.
• Version: The version number of the file. Passed to the preprocessor as an argument.

Main processor

Two NetCDF files are produced by the main ORAC processor. The fields in each file are outlined below where,

• nx = number of pixels across track;
• ny = number of pixels along track.

Extensive output can be made to stdout to track the progress of ORAC and facilitate debugging by using the VERBOSE option. An example of these is attached to this page.

File extension	Field name	Dimensions	Description
PRIMARY	time	[ny,nx]
	lat	[ny,nx]	latitude
	lon	[ny,nx]	longitude
	solar_zenith_view_no1	[ny,nx]	solar zenith angle for view no 1
	satellite_zenith_view_no1	[ny,nx]	sensor zenith angle for view no 1
	rel_azimuth_view_no1	[ny,nx]	relative azimuth angle for view no 1
	cot	[ny,nx]	cloud optical thickness
	cot_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud optical thickness uncertainty
	ref	[ny,nx]	effective radius
	ref_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	effective radius uncertainty
	ctp	[ny,nx]	cloud top pressure
	ctp_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud top pressure uncertainty
	cc_total	[ny,nx]	cloud fraction
	cc_total_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud fraction uncertainty
	stemp	[ny,nx]	surface temperature
	stemp_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	surface temperature uncertainty
	cth	[ny,nx]	cloud top height
	cth_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud top height uncertainty
	cth_corrected	[ny,nx]	corrected cloud top height
	cth_corrected_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	corrected cloud top height uncertainty
	ctt	[ny,nx]	cloud top temperature
	ctt_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud top temperature uncertainty
	cwp	[ny,nx]	cloud liquid water path
	cwp_uncertainty	[ny,nx]	cloud liquid water path uncertainty
	convergence	[ny,nx]	retrieval convergence flag
	niter	[ny,nx]	number of retrieval iterations
	phase	[ny,nx]	cloud phase flag
	phase_pavolonis	[ny,nx]	cloud phase flag Pavolonis
	costja	[ny,nx]	a priori cost at solution
	costjm	[ny,nx]	measurement cost at solution
	lsflag	[ny,nx]	land/sea flag
	qcflag	[ny,nx]	quality control flag
	illum	[ny,nx]	illumination flag
	cldtype	[ny,nx]	Pavolonis cloud type
	cloudmask_pre	[ny,nx]	Neural net cloud mask (radiance based)
	cccot_pre	[ny,nx]	neural network cloud optical thickness
	cccot	[ny,nx]	neural network cloud optical thickness
	lusflag	[ny,nx]	land use flag
	nisemask	[ny,nx]	NISE snow/ice mask
	cloud_albedo_in_channel_no_1	[ny,nx]	cloud_albedo in channel no 1
	cloud_albedo_in_channel_no_2	[ny,nx]	cloud_albedo in channel no 2
	cloud_albedo_in_channel_no_3	[ny,nx]	cloud_albedo in channel no 3
SECONDARY	scanline_u	[ny,nx]	across track pixel index
	scanline_v	[ny,nx]	along track pixel index
	cot_ap	[ny,nx]	cloud optical thickness a priori
	cot_fg	[ny,nx]	cloud optical thickness first guess
	ref_ap	[ny,nx]	effective radius a priori
	ref_fg	[ny,nx]	effective radius first guess
	ctp_ap	[ny,nx]	cloud top pressure a priori
	ctp_fg	[ny,nx]	cloud top pressure first guess
	stemp_ap	[ny,nx]	surface temperature a priori
	stemp_fg	[ny,nx]	surface temperature first guess
	albedo_in_channel_no_1	[ny,nx]	albedo in channel no 1
	albedo_in_channel_no_2	[ny,nx]	albedo in channel no 2
	albedo_in_channel_no_3	[ny,nx]	albedo in channel no 3
	reflectance_in_channel_no_1	[ny,nx]	reflectance in channel no 1
	reflectance_in_channel_no_2	[ny,nx]	reflectance in channel no 2
	reflectance_in_channel_no_3	[ny,nx]	reflectance in channel no 3
	brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_4	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature in channel no 4
	brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_5	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature in channel no 5
	brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_6	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature in channel no 6
	firstguess_reflectance_in_channel_no_1	[ny,nx]	firstguess reflectance in channel no 1
	firstguess_reflectance_in_channel_no_2	[ny,nx]	firstguess reflectance in channel no 2
	firstguess_reflectance_in_channel_no_3	[ny,nx]	firstguess reflectance in channel no 3
	firstguess_brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_4	[ny,nx]	firstguess brightness temperature in channel no 4
	firstguess_brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_5	[ny,nx]	firstguess brightness temperature in channel no 5
	firstguess_brightness_temperature_in_channel_no_6	[ny,nx]	firstguess brightness temperature in channel no 6
	reflectance_residual_in_channel_no_1	[ny,nx]	reflectance residual in channel no 1
	reflectance_residual_in_channel_no_2	[ny,nx]	reflectance residual in channel no 2
	reflectance_residual_in_channel_no_3	[ny,nx]	reflectance residual in channel no 3
	brightness_temperature_residual_in_channel_no_4	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature residual in channel no 4
	brightness_temperature_residual_in_channel_no_5	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature residual in channel no 5
	brightness_temperature_residual_in_channel_no_6	[ny,nx]	brightness temperature residual in channel no 6
	degrees_of_freedom_signal	[ny,nx]	degrees of freedom for signal

Fields containing 'channel_no_X' will have names dependant on the instrument considered and channels desired.