GFI CODAS

1. DESCRIPTION

This manual page is a quick introduction to CODAS databases and utilities, GFI extensions. It also provides an index to GFI documentation.

2. WHAT IS CODAS?

The Common Oceanographic Data Archiving System (CODAS) is a software package for archiving oceanographic data into hierarchical databases. Some the advantages of archiving data with this package are:

• data organized and structured,
• data are saved together with instrument setup,
• data are saved together with cruise information,
• data are saved together with post-processing information,
• using extraction tools, data can be easily retrieved from their database,
• databases are built in such a way that access to data is very fast,
• most of post-processing information is saved aside, and applied to data only when these are retrieved. Original measurements are therefore untouched and can be re-examined or re-processed if needed,

Although many other database systems present some of the features listed above already, CODAS has been especially developed for oceanographic data, some of which being quite complex, such as ADCP data. Moreover, the CODAS package provides many unique post-processing tools for such datasets. Among these, a set of extensive utilities for processing Vessel Mounted ADCP data is implemented.

3. WHAT ARE GFI EXTENSIONS?

A set of additional CODAS tools has been developed at Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen . Among these, one can find

• utilities for scanning, viewing and averaging of Narrow Band ADCP Raw files,
• more extraction tools,
• implementation of additional CTD input file formats,
• tools combining CTD and ADCP data, such as geostrophic current or calibration of speed of sound,

These extensions are called GFI after Geofysisk Institutt. They are implented aside of the original CODAS software package. However, some do modify the behaviour of original CODAS functions. These are implemented as modules that can be turned at compile time. GFI extensions have been submitted to the maintainer and creator of the CODAS package, Eric Firing, and some of thesed might become part of it.

4. CODAS DOCUMENTATION

Codas
Documentation coming with the main CODAS package can be found in the different subdirectories of the CODAS installation. The most important sources of information are:

• The CODAS User's Manual is the start point for understanding the use of CODAS databases and ADCP processing.
• More information about CODAS internals will be useful for understanding the structure and definition of CODAS databases.
• The data processing mask specifies which processing steps have already been carried out.
• ADCP data collected with DAS undergo scanning and loading processes to generate CODAS databases.
• A set of executables and Matlab tools are used to edit ADCP CODAS databases for marking bad data or limit the range of good data.
• A set of utilities is used to Calibrate data in ADCP CODAS databases .
• How absolute ship speed is determined when processing data from ADCP CODAS databases.
• A vector plotting utility is supplied together with the CODAS package for viewing currents from
• The compiling strategy of the CODAS main package is briefly explained.

GFI Extensions
Documentation about GFI extensions can be found in subdirectory gfi/doc in the CODAS installation. It can be found as text files, manual pages and hypertext documents. The most important files are:

• The top documentation page you are currently reading contains the links to the other GFI documentation pages. This is manual page gficodas(5).
• The GFI index has a list of all documentation pages in the GFI CODAS extensions. This is manual page gfiindex(5).
• If you plan to install this software, you should probably read the installation instructions which can be found in manual page gfinstal(5).
• If you plan to use the GFI CODAS extensions, you should read the user configuration instructions which can be found in manual page gficfg(5).
• If you have downloaded the archive and extracted all the files, you can find the path to the documentation described above in files gfi/README and gfi/INSTALL .

5. GETTING CODAS

Codas
The CODAS package has been developed at SOEST, University of Hawaii by Eric Firing and is available on the ftp site of this institute.

GFI Extensions
The GFI CODAS Extensions have been developed at Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, by Pierre Jaccard and are available on anonymous ftp . You can also download the latest version of this package. It contains both the CODAS and GFI extensions. This software is free and comes without any warranty. You are welcome to use it, but we hope you'll mention where you got it and appreciate your comments.

6. AUTHOR

Manual page written by P. Jaccard, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, 1999.

Back to the top documentation Index of GFI Extensions