2. Installation

Polar2Grid is released as an all-in-one tarball for Enterprise Linux systems. The tarball, or software bundle, provided by the CSPP for Low Earth Orbiter Satellites (CSPP LEO) team includes a python runtime and all of the necessary third-party software to run the features provided by Polar2Grid. The tarball uses bash scripts for conveniently calling the python software or utilities provided by third-party vendors. The software bundle is supported on Rocky Linux 9.3 compatible systems, but has also been tested on Rocky Linux 8.9 and may work on other compatible Linux 64-bit operating systems as well. There are other ways to install Polar2Grid on other operating systems, but the instructions to do so are beyond the scope of this documentation.

Please Contact Us if you have questions about installation.

2.1. Polar2Grid Software

The Polar2Grid tarball can be downloaded from the CSPP LEO website: https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/cspp/

To install the software, unpack the tarball:

tar xf CSPP_POLAR2GRID_V3.1.tar.gz

This will create a Polar2Grid software bundle directory, polar2grid_v_3_1. To simplify calling scripts included in the bundle the following line should be added to your .bash_profile:

export POLAR2GRID_HOME=/path/to/softwarebundle

All other environment information needed to run is automatically loaded by the scripts provided by Polar2Grid. Scripts are typically invoked using:

$POLAR2GRID_HOME/bin/<p2g_script.sh> ...

To execute commands without including the preceding directory path, or if using in a script in its own background environment, then set the path to include the /bin directory:

export PATH=$PATH:$POLAR2GRID_HOME/bin

Note

A one-time initialization process is performed the first time any of the bash scripts are run. The extracted directory can NOT be moved after this is performed. In a shared user installation (multiple users running the same installation), the user that extracted the tarball should run a script to perform this initialization before any other users (ex. -h to polar2grid.sh).

See Polar2Grid Basics for more information on running Polar2Grid.

2.2. Polar2Grid Test Data

To confirm a successful installation download the following verification test data set:

CSPP_POLAR2GRID_V3.1_TEST_DATA.tar.gz

The test data should be unpacked in a directory separate from the Polar2Grid installation:

cd $HOME
tar xf CSPP_POLAR2GRID_V3.1_TEST_DATA.tar.gz

This will create a polar2grid_test directory containing the test input, output, and verification scripts for both MODIS and VIIRS instruments.

See Verifying your Polar2Grid Installation for instructions on using the verification test data.