OBTAINING, BUILDING AND RUNNING STREAMER


IMPORTANT! If you dowload the code, please register with your name, email and postal addresses. Doing so will ensure that you are kept informed, via email, of bug fixes and updates.

Streamer may be obtained for implementation under Unix or other operating systems. With a few exceptions the source code is the same for all, but the method of building the executable program varies.

The easiest way to get the code and documentation is here, via the Web. If for some reason you'd rather ftp it directly, read on.

THE DOCUMENTATION

If you're not sure if Streamer is right for your applications, get a copy of the User's Guide via anonymous ftp as described below. The files are userman.ps and refman.ps in the docs subdirectory of the main streamer subdirectory. This files are postscript versions of the manual that can be printed on a postscript printer. You should also be able to view them with a Postscript viewer (e.g., Sun's Pageview or the public domain Ghostview). Because of size limitations with some systems, you may need special printing options; e.g., lpr -s userman.ps on a UNIX machine. The files can be obtained via anonymous ftp. Go to the download page.

Continued work on this program is largely unfunded. I'll be happy to answer questions about things that are not in the User's Guide, and will generally fix bugs in a reasonably short period of time. Keep in mind, however, that I'm trying to do research, so don't expect an immediate response. Send questions, comments, suggestions to: streamer@stratus.ssec.wisc.edu.

THE PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

On your machine, create a directory for Streamer and switch to it. The Streamer program code can then be obtained via anonymous ftp. Go to the download page.

Next, extract the program files:

tar xvf streamer.tar

You can then delete the file streamer.tar. Rename or copy the makefile for your operating system from Makefile.x (where x is "sun", "hp", "sgi") to simply Makefile. Then build the program with:

make all

Otherwise, you must compile and link all the *.f files as appropriate for your computer system. Makefiles for other machines will be provided as they become available. You should check your compiler documentation for options that might increase execution speed. For Sun Fortran, for example, there is a "-fast" option which nearly halves the computation time (this has been added to Makefile.sun).

Binary executable files are available for some operating systems in the bin directory. Switch to it before quiting ftp if you do not want to build Streamer from scratch.

The Streamer Web Interface allows the new user to create Streamer input files with a web browser. A tar file in the gui subdirectory of the distribution contains the program files. The browser interface must be installed by your system administrator. Have him/her extract the tar file in the gui subdirectory and read the README.install file. Note: The interface may be updated independent of the model, so check for newer versions in the gui subdirectory at the ftp site.

OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS

Streamer will run on a variety of platforms. Compiled versions (binaries) are available for Solaris (Sun), Irix (SGI), Linux (on a pc), and MS Windows. The source code is part of the distribution so it can be compiled on just about anything.

The only other non-Unix operating system that Streamer has been tested on to date is VMS on a DEC Alpha. No makefile is provided for VMS.

See the User's Guide for information on modifications that may be required for each operating system.

OTHER FILES

The input and output test files are in ./testio, and have extensions of .inp, and .des. You should run the test cases and compare your results to those provided. You'll need to copy the input files to ones with new names and change the output file names that are specified in the input files so that the originals are not overwritten. The file streamer.def is a sample defaults file. See the Input section for information on setting default values.

Bandweights files are available in the bandweights directory for the AVHRR on NOAA 12 (avhrr12.wts), HIRS/2 (hirs2.wts), and MODIS (modis.wts). The HIRS and MODIS weights are based on the half-amplitude band widths; i.e., no response functions were used. The MODIS weights are based on very early specifications and should be considered experimental.

Check the README.* files for other notes.

OPERATION NOTES

To run Streamer type:

streamer <input-file-name>

where the options are described in the next section. If getarg and iargc are not available and you modified options.f appropriately (e.g., for the DEC Alpha-VMS operating system), type:

streamer
<input-file-name> (when prompted)

In this case the command line options will not be available to you.

The computation time for fluxes (2 streams) is reasonable. For radiances, however, it can take a very, very long time to get results. The computation time is a function of the numbers of levels, streams, spectral bands, cloud types in the scene, and ESFT terms for gaseous absorption. Only the last of these is beyond your control, short of turning off gas absorption.

The web browser interface must be installed by your system administrator. Have him/her extract the tar file in the gui subdirectory of your distribution and read the README.install file.