  1.  NAME

  GFI CODAS - CODAS and GFI extensions

  2.  DESCRIPTION

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

  3.  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:

  o  data organized and structured,

  o  data are saved together with instrument setup,

  o  data are saved together with cruise information,

  o  data are saved together with post-processing information,

  o  using extraction tools, data can be easily retrieved from their
     database,

  o  databases are built in such a way that access to data is very fast,

  o  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.

  4.  WHAT ARE GFI EXTENSIONS?

  A set of additional CODAS tools has been developed at Geophysical
  Institute, University of Bergen (http://www.gfi.uib.no) . Among these,
  one can find

  o  utilities for scanning, viewing and averaging of Narrow Band ADCP
     Raw files,

  o  more extraction tools,

  o  implementation of additional CTD input file formats,

  o  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.

  5.  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:

  o  The CODAS User's Manual (file: ../../../../adcp/doc/manual.ps) is
     the start point for understanding the use of CODAS databases and
     ADCP processing.

  o  More information about CODAS internals (file:
     ../../../../doc/codas3.txt) will be useful for understanding the
     structure and definition of CODAS databases.

  o  The data processing mask (file: ../../../../adcp/doc/dpmask.txt)
     specifies which processing steps have already been carried out.

  o  ADCP data collected with DAS undergo scanning and loading (file:
     ../../../../adcp/scanload/scanload.txt) processes to generate CODAS
     databases.

  o  A set of executables and Matlab tools are used to edit ADCP CODAS
     databases (file: ../../../../adcp/edit/adcpedit.txt) for marking
     bad data or limit the range of good data.

  o  A set of utilities is used to Calibrate data in ADCP CODAS
     databases (file: ../../../../adcp/cal/adcp_cal.txt)

  o  How absolute ship speed (file: ../../../../adcp/nav/adcp_nav.txt)
     is determined when processing data from ADCP CODAS databases.

  o  A vector plotting utility (file: ../../../../vecplot/vector.txt) is
     supplied together with the CODAS package for viewing currents from

  o  The compiling strategy (file: ../../../../doc/compile.txt) 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:

  o  The top documentation page (file: gficodas.html) you are currently
     reading contains the links to the other GFI documentation pages.
     This is manual page gficodas(5).

  o  The GFI index (file: gfiindex.html) has a list of all documentation
     pages in the GFI CODAS extensions. This is manual page gfiindex(5).

  o  If you plan to install this software, you should probably read the
     installation instructions (file: gfinstal.html) which can be found
     in manual page gfinstal(5).

  o  If you plan to use the GFI CODAS extensions, you should read the
     user configuration instructions (file: gficfg.html) which can be
     found in manual page gficfg(5).

  o  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 (file: ../../../README) and gfi/INSTALL (file:
     ../../../INSTALL)

  6.  GETTING CODAS

  Codas
  The CODAS package has been developed at SOEST, University of Hawaii
  (http://www.soest.uh.edu/) by ef@soest.uh.edu and is available on the
  ftp site (ftp: currents.soest.hawaii.edu/pub/codas3/) of this
  institute.

  GFI Extensions
  The GFI CODAS Extensions have been developed at Geophysical Institute,
  University of Bergen, (http://www.gfi.uib.no/) by jaccard@gfi.uib.no
  and are available on anonymous ftp (ftp: pc34.gfi.uib.no/pub/codas/) .
  You can also download the latest (ftp:
  pc34.gfi.uib.no/pub/codas/gficodas.tar.gz) 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.

  7.  AUTHOR

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

