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GOCE User Toolbox

Display screenshot
BratDisplay screenshot

The GOCE User Toolbox (GUT) is a compilation of tools for the utilisation and analysis of GOCE products. GUT supports applications in Geodesy, Oceanography and Solid Earth Physics.

The current version of GUT is 3.2.

GUT is a command-line processor that has been designed for users at all levels of expertise.

The first level is the use of pre-built workflows allowing the computation of geoid/gravity field/mean dynamic topography in one single step, with very few inputs required. You can also generate your own workflows for enhanced or specialised processing. GUT generates all output files in netCDF format in compliance with the CF-Conventions, and gridded results may be visualised using the BratDisplay tool from ESA's Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox.

GUT is fully open source software under GNU GPL license. Advanced users can easily extend the toolbox in accordance with the workflow-based processing design principles, and contribute these enhancements to the GUT user community. The GUT API can also be used to develop independent applications, taking advantage of the algorithmic and input/output facilities used by the command-line processor.

Applications of the Variance-Covariance Matrix require additional software now included in GUT. The additional software has been developed by Georges Balmino, enhanced by Rory Bingham and Bruno Lucas and made available to the scientific community. This application requires heavy computational resources. In the current version of GUT documentation and tutorial, they are not fully supported. A short description of the Variance-Covariance Matrix Tool and examples of applications is available in the user guide.


What features does the GOCE User Toolbox offer?

BratDisplay
BratDisplay screenshot
  • Read the GOCE level 2 products and ancillary datasets, including a priori surfaces
  • Read the gravity models in ICGEM format
  • Compute geoid heights at a chosen maximum degree and order over a grid or transect
  • Compute gravity anomalies, height anomalies and vertical deflections on the surface of the terrain for a range of maximum degree and order expansions over a grid or transect
  • Compute the spherical harmonic synthesis and expansion
  • Compute geostrophic velocities and mean dynamic topography with the option of spatial/spectral filtering
  • Transform data between different reference ellipsoid and tide-systems
  • Produce final output products in netCDF format
  • Support configurable high-level processing

 

Contact us

If you would like to join the GUT user community and share your workflows, scripts, data and questions, or if you have any suggestions or feedback to improve the tool, please contact the GUT Support Team.

If you encounter a problem or bug with the tool, please provide the following information to help us assist you:

  • Explanation of the problem:
    • What were you trying to achieve
    • What did you do
    • What failed
  • Input files:
    • If possible provide the input files, or if they are publicly available, refer their URL
  • GUT version
  • System details:
    • Operating System version
    • Amount of RAM memory

 

Future Work

The GUT toolbox will be further developed through a collaborative effort in which the scientific communities participates.

Originally, the idea about the scope of a GOCE toolbox came from the scientific users, especially from experience gained through GRACE data processing. The EU supported the GOCINA and GOCINO projects, which are another source of valuable information about the needs and solutions to be consulted while assessing GOCE user needs and developing toolbox functionalities. These needs will be continuously monitored for further evolutions. Any new effort should build directly on this insight and should expand on user needs in a flexible way. As such, your feedback on the Toolbox, the Tutorial, supporting documents, data, and even source code expanding GUT, is of great value.

Download

Download the GOCE User Toolbox

The system requirements of GUT (not considering the BRAT Display) are:

  • minimum 256 MB RAM
  • 2.5 GB hard disk space

GUT can be installed in the following operating systems:

  • Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32 bits only)
  • Linux (GLIBC 2.3.6 and GLIBCXX 3.4.8 or later)
  • Mac OS 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 (ppc/intel)

The GUT source package is supported in the following platforms:

  • Linux/Unix (with gcc 4.1.2 or later)
  • Mac OS 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 (ppc/intel, Developer Tools need to be installed)
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