In these notes, we have dealt with five main data formats, namely:

Since much of our software works with some of these formats but not others, it would clearly be desirable to be able to convert between them to make the best use of the available programs. Although it is not possible (or necessary) to convert from each of these formats to any of the others, the following conversions are possible:

LDR format to integrated data format

This can be done using the routine LDR2int. The routine is designed to be run in a unix pipe, so a suitable syntax might be

cat {ldr file} | LDR2int > {integrated data file}

Integrated data format to matlab format (int2GUP)

This can be done using the routine int2GUP. int2GUP reads its standard input, which should be a stream of integrated format data, and outputs it in GUISDAP format. Each record is stored in a separate MATLAB file in a GUISDAP-directory and the name of the file is appended to the file filelist.dat in the same directory. The name of each file is a time the data were recorded in seconds since the start of the year.

e.g.

It can also be run in a unix pipe, again taking an argument of a directory name, where the malab files will be put. i.e.

cat {integrated data file} | int2GUP {directory name}

LDR format to matlab format

This conversion can be done by combining the two steps above, i.e.

cat {ldr file} | LDR2int | int2GUP {directory name}

Matlab format to RAL NCAR (rslt) format

This conversion is useful in transforming matlab-format data analysed by GUISDAP into "RAL NCAR" (rslt) files for use by plotting programs such as panels or adv. It can be done using the matlab-based g2n routine, which can be found in /home/common/matlab on the older eiscat machines and in /soft/eiscat/etc/matlab/g2n on the clustered machines. The simplest way is to type:

g2n -d {directory of matlab files} {rslt filename}

There is also a help option:

g2n -h

You can also run the program in MATLAB from the directory containing the matlab-format output files, when the syntax is particularly simple

g2n(`nfile',{rslt filename});

In both cases, the directory must contain a file called filelist.dat, listing all the matlab files to be converted (one file per line). These files are then concatenated into a single rslt file.

Madrigal NCAR format to RAL NCAR (rslt) format

Files downloaded from the Madrigal database (see previous section) can be converted to RAL NCAR "rslt" format using the program

/home/eiscat/ian/programs/madrigal/madrigal2rslt {madrigal file}

The rslt format file is initially created as {madrigal file}.rslt, and can then be renamed by the user.

Matlab format to LDR format

genLR

This conversion can be done using the genLR routine (currently on the clustered machines only). This conversion is currently only supported for a small number of post-renovation mainland and ESR experiments. The power profiles or ACF parts of these experiments are currently converted to LDR format.

The syntax is:

genLR -c {experiment name} -f {filelist} -s {site name} {output ldr file}

Typing

genLR -h

gives some help and explanation of the above syntax, together with a list of the allowed experiments.

The reason for converting from matlab format to ldr format is that these data can subsequently be converted to integrated data format (see above) enabling them to be used by tools such as the Powerprofile program (currently) and the RAL Analysis Program (in the future).

genLR2

genLR2 converts raw matlab data to integrated data format and also only takes out part of the data dump (e.g. either the power profiles of one of the ACFs etc.). It is still under development and therefore will only be found in Paul Gallop's disk area.

The syntax is:

~paul/bin/genLR2 -c {coding} -f {flist} -h [-l {loopc}] -P {product} -s{site} [-V {mat-var}] {int}