Earthdata Forum

Hi everyone,

I am new to SeaDAS and I am trying to open L3 file with monthly chlorophyll concentration without luck. SeaDAS makes a warning: "No appropriate reader found <path to the file>". Do I need to install something else? What could be a problem?

OS: windows10. SeaDAS 7.3.2

Best regards,
Marat

SeaDAS can not open L3 bin files, but can view L3 mapped files.  The command line program "l3mapgen" is used to convert a bin file into a mapped file.  Unfortunately, the command line programs only work on linux or a mac. We also have SMI (Standard Mapped Image) files on the website that you can download instead.

don

Marat,

The L3 bin file format is not a raster format, so SeaDAS does not read it.  We have plans to make a reader for a future release (in fact we used to have one, but it was so inefficient as to make it unusable that we removed it).  You can process the bin file to a L3 map (SMI) file (or download the versions available on the OB.DAAC data distribution servers), which the SeaDAS GUI can read and display.

Regards,
Sean

Thanks a lot. Is there any dedicated software to extract data from L3 files?

Marat

Yes, we distribute many command line programs with SeaDAS that work with L3 bin files.

don

Hi Marat,

There is the l3bindump program that is distributed as part
of the processing code.  I use this program occasionally to
read level-3 bin files into other packages such as GMT.

l3bindump 3.0.0-r12992 (May 11 2016 19:30:27)
Usage: l3bindump argument-list

  The argument-list is a set of keyword=value pairs. The arguments can
  be specified on the command line, or put into a parameter file, or the
  two methods can be used together, with command line overriding.

  return value: 0=OK, 1=error, 110=requested bin(s) not found
  file data.

  There are 3 use cases:
    1) bin_number
    2) region defined by lat, lon, and radius (in km)
    3) region defined by north, south, west, east
The list of valid keywords follows:

   -help (boolean) (alias=-h,--help) (default=false) = print usage information
   -version (boolean) (alias=--version) (default=false) = print the version
        information
   -dump_options (boolean) (alias=--dump_options) (default=false) = print
        information about each option
   -dump_options_paramfile (ofile) (alias=--dump_options_paramfile) = print
        information about each option to paramfile
   -dump_options_xmlfile (ofile) (alias=--dump_options_xmlfile) = print
        information about each option to XML file
   par (ifile) = input parameter file
   ifile (ifile) = input L1 file name
   oformat (string) (default=txt) = output file format
        txt:  plain text columnar format
    seabass:  SeaBASS format
   l3bprod (string) (default=Unspecified) = binned product to extract
   bin_number (int) (default=-1) = bin number
   north (float) (default=-999) = north boundary
   south (float) (default=-999) = south boundary
   east (float) (default=-999) = east boundary
   west (float) (default=-999) = west boundary
   lat (float) (default=-999) = latitude
   lon (float) (default=-999) = longitude
   radius (float) (default=-999) = radius in km
   verbose (boolean) (default=0) = verbose output

Norman

Thanks a lot for the reply, I will run virtual machine with linux and try what you have suggested. Again thanks a lot!

Once you get the VM setup follow these instructions to get the command line tools.

https://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov/downloads/#manual-installation

don