6.3. Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox Frequently Asked Questions

Is it possible to do an ASCII dump of a data file using the toolbox?
you can't get directly an output file in Ascii with BRAT Graphical User Interface (GUI).
What you can do is convert the output NetCDF in Ascii, or use the command line mode (see section 7. of the User handbook) to produce an ascii file instead of a NetCDF. Indeed, among the executable files that are provided with BRAT, you have a set of .exe ; some can be used to convert the BRAT outputs in ascii in a command window.
Under Windows: go in the C:/Program Files/brat-1.0.0/bin/ directory.
there you have:
- BratExportAscii.exe
exports the data fields in ascii (not the X and Y fields; so, if you wish to see the fields you choose as X and/or Y in the ascii file, define them (it) as data fields as well)
use:
BratExportAscii.exe MyOperationName.par
The output file will be a tabulated ascii file (even if it's called '.nc'. You can change it to '.asc' to remind you that you have an ascii file), with the first line reminding the defined data fields.
The "MyOperationName.par" file is a parameter file that is produced by the Graphical User Interface (see in the "Operations/"' directory in your workspace's directory). You can also use it directly (and even modify it).
If you edit it (e.g. with Notepad), you will see this parameter file contains the informations about the operation as you defined it in the Graphical Interface (dataset, record, definition of the data field(s), X (and Y), data selection... and the output file name). At the bottom, you will see OUTPUT=C:\MyWorkspaceName\Operations\CreateMyOperationName .nc , which is the name of your output file. This is the name that you also see at the bottom of the 'Operations' tab, near the 'execute' button in the Graphical User Interface.
- ncdump.exe
converts the NetCDF output files in Ascii.
use:
ncdump.exe yourfile.nc > yourfile.asc (however, the data won't be tabulated, you will have all the first field values, then all the second field values, etc.)

Is it possible to compute geostrophic currents with the toolbox?
For now, derivatives functions have not be implemented in the toolbox