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BRAT - Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox README
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Overview
== == == ==

The Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT) is a collection of tools
and tutorial documents designed to facilitate the processing of
radar altimetry data. BRAT is able to handle most distributed
radar altimetry data formats, providing support for ingesting,
processing, editing (to a certain extent), generating statistics,
visualising and exporting the results.

A full user manual for BRAT is available in the file
brat_user_manual.pdf in the 'doc' directory of the BRAT
distribution or installation.The user manual contains all the
necessary information about installing and running BRAT.

This README file contains the version history for BRAT, a list of
known issues, and any other last - minute added or updated
information that can not( yet ) be found in the user manual.In
the case of conflicting information, this README file is
authoritative.



Version History
== == == == == == ==
3.3.0 - September 2015
--------------------
    - Correction of unhandled exception caused by not updading NetCDF
    file to reflect GUI changes.
    - Ensured build and run compatibility with CentOS 6 64 bits.
    - Enabled by default side-by-side installation of different BRAT
      versions and processor architectures on the same machine, without
      overwriting each other.
    - Updated available formulas (new formulas.ini file).
    - GUI applications display version and architecture, allowing easy
      runtime identification of different instances on the same system.
    - Python API examples can run immediately after installation,
      without further configuration actions like defining BRAT_DATA_DIR.
    - Correction of BRATHL 3.1.0 bug, caused by buffer overruns when
      reading a large list of files.
    - Correction of bugs caused by wxWidgets upgrade:
            - the Log tab in the application BratGui loosed its	graphical
              layout and stability when resized;
            - the context menus of the tree widgets did not execute the
              expected actions and did not present all menu items.
    - Enabled C++11 support in g++ (Linux).
    - Windows XP support enabled by default in 32 bit binaries.
    - Update to NetCDF version 4.3.3.1.
    - Inclusion of new libraries, in integration with NetCDF 4 and CODA 2.13,
    deployed along with BRAT with their respective tools:
    - HDF5 version 1.8.15,
    - curl version 7.43 ( only in Windows ),
    - SZip version 2.1.
    - Extensions of BRATHL code to process NetCDF 4 and HDF 5, including new
    NetCDF data types.
    - Creation of a brathl dynamic module (brathl_module) encapsulating
    all BRATHL functionality to enable (autonomous) load and interface
        with Python.
    - New Python API to the BRATHL library, with examples.
    - Port to 64 bit of BRAT and all its dependencies, including
    - VTK 5.6.0 adjustments to enable 64 bit,
    - port to 64 bit of the BRATHL library,
    - port to 64 bit of the BRAT command line tools,
    - port to 64 bit of the BRAT GUI applications.
    - Updated wxWidgets to version 3.0.2.
    - Replaced Carbon by Cocoa framework in MAC OS X related code and build settings.
    - Updated BRAT GUI applications and libraries, with VTK support, as required
    by new wxWidgets version.

3.2.0 - June 2015
------------------
Transitional release, preparing version 3.3.0 and focused on
    - update of build settings and source code to support current versions of
    operating systems, compilers and build systems in all supported platforms
    (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X);
    - update of build settings and source code to prepare the port to 64 bit
    architectures;
    - update to CODA version 2.13;
    - update to BitRock InstallBuilder version 15.1.0;
    - minor bug corrections.

3.1.0 - March 2012
------------------
    - Add an "aliases" capability, that enables users to use the same names for
    the most frequent data fields.
    - Add an index (brat_index_data) for data with a "time" dimension
    (i.e. not available for some data, like grids).
    - Add filters algorithms (four different filters have been implemented),
    working along-track or on grids.
    - The call to the geostrophic velocity algorithms is modified to use the
    aliases for longitude and latitude, to make things simpler for users.
    - Updated CODA to version 2.3.1.
    - Internal (CODA) product type names for ERS product types have been aligned
    with ESA naming convention (OPR_pass_file -> ALT.OPR, WAP -> ALT.WAP)
    - Updated CryoSat product format (codadef) to be in line with upcoming
    L1 PFS v4.9 and L2 PFS v2.8. Main changes impacting BRAT are:
        - The field for the main dataset in the FDM product is now called
          'siral_l2_fdm_mds' instead of 'siral_l2_fdo_mds'
        - usr_corr field now has a scale factor of 1e-15 instead of 1e-7
        - Fixed locating of User Manual document when selected from GUI.

3.0.1 - May 2011
----------------
  - Bugs fixed :
    * The Loess filters computation were not applied if input files were netCDF
      files.
    * Fixed problem where incorrect lines were drawn for worldmap plots on
      Windows due to rounding issues near the projection boundaries.
    * Fixed issue where a 'marque' (box with dotted lines) could appear in a
      worldmap plot.
    * Included MSVC 2010 DLLs to BRAT IDL and MATLAB directories on Windows to
      prevent usage problems of these interfaces.

3.0 - February 2011
-------------------
  - Added algorithms computation module (geostrophic velocity algorithms).
  - Added batch processing : BratScheduler enables to delay the execution of an
    operation.
  - Added support for Topex-Poseidon and ERS RA waveform products.
  - It is now possible to drag & drop files into the Dataset panel.
  - Several improvements to BratDisplay:
    * the center/zoom functionality for worldplots has been greatly improved.
    * the number of latitude/longitude grid lines will now increase/decrease
      depending on the zoom level.
    * latitude/longitude grid lines now come with a text label showing the
      associated latitude/longitude value of the parallel/meridian.
    * the 'animation bar' is now shown by default if the plot can be animated.
    * Added support for new projections: Orthographic, Near-Sided Perspective,
      and Stereographic.
    * The save directory for image export will now be remembered for consecutive
      calls to export.
    * Added support to visualize vector plots.
  - Improve 'ascii export' : 'ascii export' is able to export either the result
    of the operation (default) or only dumps the expression data. In the
    previous version of Brat, 'ascii export' only dumped the expression data.
  - Updated CODA to version 1.5.
  - BRAT now requires VTK 5.6.
  - Bugs fixed :
    * Statistics computation are not converted to wanted unit (set by the user).
    * Display Expression Properties for a field were not updated properly in the
      Views tab of BratGui on Mac OS X.
    * The BRAT installer did now work on KDE SUSE 11 systems.

2.1.1 - June 2010
-----------------
  - Bugs fixed :
    * Regression issue in 2.1.0 that broke support of high resolution and
      waveform data for ENVISAT RA-2 and ERS RA products.
    * Possible loss of field names in expressions that contain aliases
    * Wrong SSH formula for Topex product (SSH_TOPEX) (since BRAT 2.0.0):
      'Topex dual-frequency ionospheric (Iono_Cor) correction' should be used
      instead of 'Ionospheric correction from DORIS (Iono_Dor).
    * When executing an operation within Brat GUI, expression was sometimes
      reset if it contained a syntax error.
    * For Topex products, the date in Brat output was wrong if the Brat
      operation contained "high resolution" fields (data).

2.1.0 - March 2010
------------------
  - Updated RA2 product format specifications (codadef) to bring them in line 
    with the new Vol14 4/C product format specifications document.
  - Improvements to the CRYOSAT product format definitions (codadef) file to
    bring it in line with the latest official specification documents.
  - Updated CODA to version 1.3.3.
  - Bugs fixed :
    * The Matlab API 'brathl_ReadData' could crash depending on how parameters
      were passed to the API.
    * BratDisplay could crash due to an invalid pointer.
    * Incorrect fieldname for Export if 'Only dump expressions' was selected.
    * Fixed column header for 'date as period' values in ascii export.

2.0.3 - November 2009
---------------------
  - Bugs fixed :
    * An uninstall of BRAT would delete the entire installation
      directory (/usr/local by default on Linux when installed as
      root), including non-BRAT files and directories.
    * BratExportAscii : issue with the FIELD_FORMAT parameter
      which is not taken into account from the export parameters' file 
	  (Notice that FIELD_FORMAT parameter is never set by using BratGui 
	  and have to be set manually in the parameters' file).
    * Get rid of 'RPM' error messages after a root install on
      Linux.

2.0.2 - November 2009
--------------------
  - Bugs fixed : 
    * On Windows, BRAT could be looking on the wrong drive for its data files 
    * Fixed a few potential memory leak and memory corruption problems
    * Uninstaller on Windows will now properly remove all files

2.0.1 - June 2009
-----------------
  - Bugs fixed : 
    * Compilation errors under Linux X64
    * BratDisplay sometimes crashes on close.
    * BratGui sometimes crashes when refreshing the display panel
    * Some minor issues.
  
  - Improve 'ascii export' report (from Netcdf products).

2.0.0 - April 2009
------------------
  - This update is a major upgrade of the software, including a Mac OS X
    version, River&Lake data reading capability, full waveform processing and
    plotting, new plotting capabilities, export in GeoTiff, including a Google
    Earth export feature, easier export in ASCII, a rethinking of the Graphical
    User Interface and of the software packaging, to make it easier to use.

1.1.1 - June 2008
----------------------
  - Bug fixed : In Brat Gui, Loess filter is never applied. Bug
    appears in version 1.1.0.

1.1.0 - December 2007
----------------------
  - Bug fixed : sometimes the toolbox (GUI) crashes when you
    delete an operation.
  - Add Jason-2 data processing.
  - Add 'General' NetCdf data processing.
  - Built under linux with GCC 4.2.2 (new warnings)

1.0.2 - March 2007
------------------
  - Bug fixed : In X/Y plot display, sometimes the toolbox
    crashes when moving the graph after having modified the font
    size.
  - Disable 'barn' unit.
  
1.0.1 - December 2006
---------------------
  - Add high-resolution fields processing.
  - Installation process and package creation enhanced.

1.0.0
-----
  - First released version.



Known Issues
============

There are currently no known issues.


Further information
===================

For software upgrades, documentation updates and the on-line
tutorial, including use cases go to:

http://earth.esa.int/brat/ or http://www.altimetry.info/

BRAT has been developed under contract with ESA.