Libsim is a collection of Fortran libraries and command-line tools.
The libraries include a general purpose ''base'' library with modules for handling character variables, csv files, command-line arguments, physical constants, date and time computations, georeferenced coordinates, growable arrays and list structures of any type and other.
Another set of libraries is specific to Meteorology and Earth Science and allows to work with gridded and sparse georeferenced data, perform interpolations, statistical processing in time, data quality control, thermodynamic computations.
The ready-to-use command-line tools allow to perform many kinds of space interpolations and time computations on georeferenced data in GRIB and BUFR format.
Libsim strongly relies on DB-All.e/wreport for handling sparse point data and on ECMWF grib_api for gridded data in GRIB format. It can also understand shapefiles and all the Gdal-supported raster formats.
Libsim is written in modern object-oriented-style Fortran 90; since its development started in 2006, only a few modules have been written with real O-O F2003 syntax.
The package is meant to be built on Linux with the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc/gfortran, etc.). With limitations, it can be built also on other POSIX-compliant operating systems and/or with other Fortran compilers.
The build process is not trivial and requires the installation of many depending packages.
The SMND package provides a framework for compiling the main libsim dependencies and libsim itself, as well as an universal binary package suitable to be installed on a generic state-of-the-art x86_64 Linux system.
From version 7.0.0, libsim follows semver 2.0 for API
and ABI changes. The library version (-version-info) follows the libtools
conventions.
The documentation for all command-line tools can be found in their manpage. All command-line tools also have extensive command-line help that can be accessed using the "--help" option.
The Fortran API documentation is not available online at the moment, it can be generated in the package build process through doxygen.
The file vargrib2bufr.csv contains a descriptive association between WMO BUFR B table variables hosted in dballe.txt and GRIB parameters.
The csv fields are:
- B CODE (in the form Bxxyyy, the numeric part corresponds to the first field of the dballe.txt table)
- description
- GRIB parameter unit
- GRIB originating centre
- Table (GRIB1) / Category (GRIB2)
- Parameter
- Discipline (GRIB2) / 255 (GRIB1)
- Scale (to corresponding B CODE units)
- Offset (to corresponding B CODE units)
Additional notes:
- Multiple GRIB parameters can be associated to the same B table variable, but not vice versa (B codes are unique for each phisical variable).
- BUFR B Table variables are identified by the first field only, while GRIB variables are identified by fields 3 to 7).
- Values can be missing (empty string for char fields, 255 for numeric fields), and it will be interpreted as a wildcard.
- If field 5 is ≥ 128 then the orinating centre is considered mandatory and it can't be missing (255).
- If a variable is present both in GRIB1 and GRIB2 formats, it needs two separate records, one with missing Discipline (255) and one with GRIB2 Disicpline value.
- A local version of
vargrib2bufr.csvcan be used by assigning to the environment variableLIBSIM_DATAa path containing a modified version of the file.
The authors of libsim are:
Davide Cesari dcesari@arpae.it
Paolo Patruno ppatruno@arpae.it
libsim is Copyright (C) 2010-2023 ARPAE-SIMC urpsim@arpae.it
Libsim is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or successive. Please see the file COPYING for details.
Contact informations for ARPAE-SIMC (formerly ARPA-SIM):
Agenzia Regionale Prevenzione Ambiente e Energia dell'Emilia-Romagna (ARPAE)
Servizio Idro-Meteo-Clima (SIMC)
Address: Viale Silvani 6, 40122 Bologna, Italy
Tel: + 39 051 6497511
Fax: + 39 051 6497501
Email: urpsim@arpae.it
Website: https://www.arpae.it/