Prerequisites

Installation

note: if you wish to install the optional pdemtools, see below before proceeding

To install cryoswath, clone the GitHub repository.

git clone git@github.com/j-haacker/cryoswath.git

Then install it into your projects virtual environment. If you don’t use virtual environments, please do so for this project to ensure all dependencies can be satisfied. You can install cryoswath by running:

pip install --editable <path that you cloned into>

Supplying the --editable flag allows you to update and modify cryoswath.

Continue by running cryoswath-init.

This will setup a directory structure, download the package, and download some small auxiliary files. Large resource dependency need to be downloaded manually.

The above installation is the recommended. Refer to the readme for a variety of alternatives that may help incase of issues. Among the alternatives, there is a fallback strategy using a docker container.

Data dependencies

cryoswath needs a reference elevation model. Currently, ArcticDEM and REMA of the Polar Geospatial Center, University of Minnesota (https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/) are supported. To use other sources, add their paths to cryoswath.misc.get_dem_reader(). Deposit them in data/auxiliary/DEM or change dem_path in cryoswath.misc to your needs.

Further, if you would like to take advantage of the basin shapes provided in the Randolph Glacier Inventory, download them as needed. Make sure to download both products, “G” (glaciers/basins) and “C” (complexes). cryoswath will give you hints, if any data is missing, as you go. Deposit the shape files in data/auxiliary/RGI or change rgi_path in cryoswath.misc to your needs. If you already know what data you need, find them at the nsidc repository.

Software dependencies

The software dependencies should have been installed when you ran pip install --editable ./cryoswath (see above). The dependencies can be found in the pyproject.toml. There is a historic requirements.txt that used to list dependencies that are needed or beneficial to run cryoswath. However, it is not well maintained. Note, that the package names are “conda” names; “pip” names my be slightly different.

Optional pdemtools

Optionally, you can install pdemtools to download data of the PGC DEMs ArcticDEM or REMA on the fly. This can be handy if you explore small regions. However, the data will be downloaded at a 32 m resolution - much higher than needed in the context of CryoSat observations.

Due to pdemtools’ dependence on GDAL, the installation is difficult. The first method is still comparably simple, but will not allow to modify cryoswath once it is installed. The second method is issue- and failure-prone because of various version requriements. The third option will likely install but could lead to errors down the road.

First - conda-only:

Create a fresh conda environment installing cryoswath and pdemtools: conda create -n new_env cryoswath pdemtools (from v0.2.3 this will not be necessary anymore)

Second - system(Linux) + pip:

First install “libgdal-dev”, then pip install "gdal==$(gdal-config --version)", and finalize with pip install "cryoswath[dem]". On other operating systems this will be similar: importantly, make sure the libgdal is available before the installation.

Third - conda + pip:

First create a conda environment with pdemtools and then pip-install cryoswath (either editable like described above or from pypi).

conda create -n new_env pdemtools
conda activate new_env
git clone git@github.com/j-haacker/cryoswath.git cryoswath
pip install --editable "cryoswath[dem]"