Aqua Satellite Project, Update 5 Released

Movie made from GridToMap images.

Update 5 for the Aqua Satellite Project is ready. You can download it here. The big item is the new GridToMap program which lets you create bitmap images from gridded data.


GridToMap takes various pieces of input data and creates an output bitmap. The inputs are:

• Climate data for the entire world in 2.5 by 2.5 degree gridded format. This is a .cvs file with 1 optional header row and 3 required header columns.
• A text pallet file describing which colors get assigned to which ranges of data.
• A legend bit map that can display whatever information you want, but is intended to show the image's legend. The legend bitmap must be 20 pixels high and the same width as the main map image.
• An optional superimpose bitmap that will be laid over the map. The superimpose image must be the same width and height as the map (not counting the 20 pixels for the legend).
• The map can begin at the Prime Meridian or the International Date Line.
• Optionally, average, minimum, and maximum values for the map can be displayed as thumbnails in the left 60 pixels of the legend.

There are three related scripts: grid_to_map, grid_to_movie, and grid_to_movie_with_filename. All three of these scripts scan immediate subdirectories looking for .csv files and run GridToMap against any they find. They differ only in how they name the output files. grid_to_map simply appends ".bmp" to the new filename. grid_to_movie uses "movie" with a sequence number and ".bmp". grid_to_movie_with_filename prepends "movie", a sequence number, three under-bars, the filename, the sequence number (again) and ".bmp".

Sample grids, pallets, legends, and overlays are included with the download in the GridToMap folder. For additional details, see the version log that comes with the download.