mpl2nc

Convert Sigma Space Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) data files and afterpulse, overlap and dead time correction files to NetCDF.

mpl2nc is a Python program for converting binary MPL files to NetCDF4. The converted variables closely follow those in the binary files. See the Micro Pulse LiDAR System Software Manual for description of the original format and variables. In contrast to the official SigmaMPL software, mpl2nc preserves the native resolution of the data and allows easier batch operation on many input files. The program can run on any operating system with Python 3. Raw lidar backscatter is stored in the channel_1 (cross-polarized) and channel_2 (co-polarized) variables. Normalized relative backscatter (NRB) is calculated from the raw backscatter (experimental). If afterpulse, overlap and dead time correction files are supplied, the corrections are applied when calculating NRB.

Note that the vendor-supplied dead time correction is known to be incorrect in some instances. The dead time bin files use 32-bit floating point values to store polynomial coefficients, which may be truncated due to the limited precision of the data type. Using such dead time correction with mpl2nc or the SigmaMPL software will result in wrong calibration. In such case please use a CSV file with dead time correction polynomial curve values as specified in the instrument's documentation (see below).

Usage

mpl2nc is a command line program to be run a terminal (Linux and macOS) or the Command Prompt (Windows).

Synopsis:

mpl2nc [-a afterpulse] [-d dead_time] [-o overlap] [-q] [-v] [input] output
mpl2nc -h|--help

Optional arguments:

• -a afterpulse: Afterpulse correction file (.bin).
• -d dead_time: Dead time correction file (.bin or .csv).
• -h, --help: Show help message and exit.
• -o overlap: Overlap correction file (.bin).
• -q: Run quietly (suppress output).
• -v: Show program's version number and exit.

Positional arguments:

• input: Input .mpl file or a directory containing .mpl files.
• output: Output .nc file or a directory where the resulting .nc files are written.

If input is not specified, only the correction files are converted and written to output.

Currently only afterpulse correction file version 3 (SigmaMPL2013R1.0 and later) is supported.

The dead time correction file can come either from the vendor-supplied .bin file or from a CSV file created manually from a polynomial curve specified in the instrument's documentation (see below).

On Linux and macOS, see also the man page for information about usage:

man mpl2nc

Examples

mpl2nc -a MMPL5054_Afterpulse_201903220500.bin -o MMPL5054_Overlap_201903270700.bin -d MMPL5054_SPCM34184_Deadtime7.bin 201803040300.mpl 201803040300.nc

Convert 201803040300.mpl to 201803040300.nc using correction files for afterpulse, overlap and dead time.

mpl2nc -a MMPL5054_Afterpulse_201903220500.bin -o MMPL5054_Overlap_201903270700.bin -d MMPL5054_SPCM34184_Deadtime7.bin in out

Convert MPL files in the directory in to NetCDF files in the directory out using correction files for afterpulse, overlap and dead time.

mpl2nc -a MMPL5054_Afterpulse_201903220500.bin -o MMPL5054_Overlap_201903270700.bin -d MMPL5054_SPCM34184_Deadtime7.bin calibration.nc

Convert afterpulse, overlap and dead time correction files to the NetCDF file calibration.nc.

Installation

It is recommended to run mpl2nc on Linux.

Linux

On Debian-derived distributions (Ubuntu, Devuan, ...), install the required system packages with:

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip pipx

On Fedora, install the required system packages with:

sudo yum install python3 pipx

Install mpl2nc:

pipx install mpl2nc
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/man/man1
ln -s ~/.local/pipx/venvs/mpl2nc/share/man/man1/mpl2nc.1 ~/.local/share/man/man1/

Make sure that $HOME/.local/bin is included in the PATH environment variable if not already. This can be done with pipx ensurepath.

You should now be able to run mpl2nc and see the manual page with man mpl2nc.

To uninstall:

pipx uninstall mpl2nc
rm ~/.local/share/man/man1/mpl2nc.1

macOS

Open the Terminal. Install mpl2nc with:

python3 -m pip install mpl2nc

Make sure that /Users/<user>/Library/Python/<version>/bin is included in the PATH environment variable if not already, where <user> is your system user name and <version> is the Python version. This path should be printed by the above command. This can be done by adding this line to the file .zprofile in your home directory and restart the Terminal:

PATH="$PATH:/Users/<user>/Library/Python/<version>/bin"

You should now be able to run mpl2nc and see the manual page with man mpl2nc.

To uninstall:

python3 -m pip uninstall mpl2nc

Windows

Install Python 3. In the installer, tick Add python.exe to PATH.

Open Command Prompt from the Start menu. Install mpl2nc with:

pip install mpl2nc

You should now be able to run mpl2nc.

To uninstall:

pip uninstall mpl2nc

NetCDF output description

Dimensions

• profile – backscatter profile
• range – backscatter range
• ap_range – afterpulse range
• ol_range – overlap range

Variables

Constants

Variable	Description	Units	Comment
ap_background_average_copol	afterpulse co pol background average	count.µs-1
ap_background_average_crosspol	afterpulse cross pol background average	count.µs-1
ap_energy	afterpulse energy	µJ
ap_file_version	afterpulse file version
ap_header	afterpulse header
ap_number_bins	afterpulse number of bins	count
ap_number_channels	afterpulse number of channels	count
c	speed of light	m.s-1
dt_coeff	dead time coefficient		N coefficients of polynomial degree N-1 in decreasing order
dt_coeff_degree	dead time coefficient degree	count
dt_number_coeff	dead time number of coefficients	count
ol_number_bins	overlap number of bins	count

1D (ap_range)

Variable	Description	Units	Comment
ap_copol	afterpulse co pol values	count.µs-1
ap_crosspol	afterpulse cross pol values	count.µs-1
ap_range	afterpulse range	km

1D (ol_range)

Variable	Description	Units	Comment
ol_overlap	overlap values
ol_range	overlap range	km

1D (profile)

Variable	Description	Units	Comment
ad_data_bad_flag	A/D data bad flag		0: A/D data good, 1: A/D data probably out of sync. Energy monitor collection is not exactly aligned with MCS shots.
azimuth_angle	azimuth angle	degrees	Azimuth angle of scanner.
background_average	background average	count.µs-1	Background Average for Channel #1.
background_average_2	background average (channel 2)	count.µs-1	Background Average for Channel #2.
background_stddev	background standard deviation	count.µs-1	Background Standard Deviation for Channel #1.
background_stddev_2	background standard deviation (channel 2)	count.µs-1	Background Standard Deviation for Channel #2.
bin_time	bin time	s	Bin width (100, 200, or 500 nanoseconds).
compass_degrees	compass degrees	degrees	Compass degrees (currently unused).
data_file_version	data file version		Version of the file format.
elevation_angle	elevation angle	degrees	Elevation angle of scanner.
energy_monitor	energy monitor	mJ	Mean of the Energy Monitor readings * 1000.
first_background_bin	first background bin		Used primarily for MiniMPL (will always be 0 for normal MPL as background is collected pre-trigger).
first_data_bin	first data bin		Bin # of the first return data.
gps_altitude	GPS altitude	m	GPS altitude (optional).
gps_latitude	GPS latitude	degrees north	GPS latitude (optional).
gps_longitude	GPS longitude	degrees east	GPS longitude (optional).
mcs_mode	MCS mode		MCS mode register.
num_background_bins	number of background bins	count	Number of background bins following First Background Bin.
number_channels	number of channels	count	MCS Channels collected. Either 1 or 2.
number_data_bins	number of data bins	count
polarization_voltage_0	polarization voltage 0		Not used.
polarization_voltage_1	polarization voltage 1		Not used.
range_calibration	range calibration	m	Default is 0; will indicate range calibration offset measured for particular unit.
scan_scenario_flags	scan scenario flags		0: No scan scenario used, 1: Scan scenario used].
shots_sum	shots sum	count	Number of laser shots collected.
sync_pulses_seen_per_second	sync pulses seen per second	count.s-1	MiniMPL Only; indicates average number of laser pulses seen to validate if laser is operating correctly.
system_type	system type		0: Normal MPL, 1: MiniMPL.
temp_0	A/D #0 mean		Mean of the A/D #0 readings * 100.
temp_1	A/D #1 mean		Mean of the A/D #1 readings * 100.
temp_2	A/D #2 mean		Mean of the A/D #2 readings * 100.
temp_3	A/D #3 mean		Mean of the A/D #3 readings * 100.
temp_4	A/D #4 mean		Mean of the A/D #4 readings * 100.
time	time	seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00	Record collection time.
time_utc	UTC time	ISO 8601	Record collection time (UTC).
trigger_frequency	trigger frequency	Hz	Laser fire rate (usually 2500).
unit	unit		Unique number for each data system.
version	version		Software version of the EXE that created this file. If the SigmaMPL.exe version is 3.00 then this value would be 300.
ws_barometric_pressure	barometric pressure	hPa	Weather station barometric pressure.
ws_dewpoint	dewpoint temperature	℃	Weather station dewpoint.
ws_inside_humidity	inside humidity	percent	Weather station inside humidity.
ws_inside_temp	inside temperature	℃	Weather station inside temperature.
ws_outside_humidity	outside humidity	percent	Weather station outside humidity.
ws_outside_temp	outside temperature	℃	Weather station outside temperature.
ws_rain_rate	rain rate	mm.h-1	Weather station rain rate.
ws_used	weather station used		0: Weather station not used, 1: Weather station used.
ws_wind_direction	wind direction	degree	Weather station wind direction.
ws_wind_speed	wind speed	km.h-1	Weather station wind speed.

2D (profile × range)

Variable	Description	Units	Comment
channel_1	channel #1 data	count.µs-1	For MPL systems without POL-FS option, the return signal array is stored here. For MPL systems with the POL-FS option, the cross-polarized return signal array is stored here.
channel_2	channel #2 data	count.µs-1	Used only with POL-FS option. The co-polarized return signal array is stored here.
nrb_copol	copol normalized relative backscatter	count.µs-1.µJ-1.km2	Experimental.
nrb_crosspol	crosspol normalized relative backscatter	count.µs-1.µJ-1.km2	Experimental.

Attributes

Variable	Description
created	UTC time in ISO 8601 format when the file was created.
software	Software identification (mpl2nc (https://github.com/peterkuma/mpl2nc)).
version	mpl2nc version.

Additional information

Range calculation

Range can be calculated as 0.5*bin_time*c*([0, ..., n - 1] + 0.5), where n is the number of bins.

NRB

mpl2nc uses the following formula to calculate NRB:

nrb_copol = (channel_2*dtcf(channel_2) - background_average_2*dtcf(background_average_2) -
            ap_copol*dtcf(ap_copol)*energy_monitor*1e-3/ap_energy +
            ap_background_average_copol*dtcf(ap_background_average_copol)*energy_monitor*1e-3/ap_energy)*
            range**2/(ol_overlap*energy_monitor*1e-3)
nrb_crosspol = (channel_1*dtcf(channel_1) - background_average_1*dtcf(background_average_1) -
               ap_crosspol*dtcf(ap_crosspol)*energy_monitor*1e-3/ap_energy +
               ap_background_average_crosspol*dtcf(ap_background_average_crosspol)*energy_monitor*1e-3/ap_energy)*
               range**2/(ol_overlap*energy_monitor*1e-3)

where range is range in m and dtcf is a function which calculates the dead time correction factor for given photon counts. The correction fields are interpolated on the data range.

Dead time correction

A CSV file with dead time correction values can be supplied with the -d option. This can be created from a dead time correction polynomial curve table supplied with the instrument. For example:

The CSV file should contain two columns: count (in Kc/s) and factor (unitless). The values should be as specified in the table for your particular instrument. For the above example, the content of the CSV file should be:

count,factor
13.6,1.00
33.9,1.01
87.1,0.98
220.3,0.98
542.4,1.00
1332.2,1.02
2071.1,1.04
3101.2,1.10
4550.5,1.19
6630.3,1.29
9281.0,1.46
10855.9,1.58
12618.1,1.71
14570.7,1.86
16570.5,2.06
18778.5,2.29
20667.1,2.62
23145.1,2.94
25075.1,3.42
27049.1,3.99
28816.7,4.71
30462.6,5.61
31942.1,6.74
33147.1,8.18
33964.4,10.05
34434.4,12.47

The resulting curve is linearly interpolated between the specified points in the count–log(factor) space. For count values below the smallest value, a factor of 1 is used. For count values above the largest value, a factor of infinity (in the floating-point data type) is used and a warning is issued.

License

This software can be used, modified and distributed freely under the terms of an MIT license (see LICENSE.md in the source distribution).

Release notes

Version numbering follows Semantic Versioning.

1.4.1 (2024-05-10)

• Support for dead time correction supplied as a CSV file.
• Better error reporting.
• Improvements in the documentation.

1.3.6 (2023-08-19)

• Installation with pipx.
• Improved list of dependencies in setup.py.
• Dropped support for Python 2.7.

1.3.5 (2020-07-18)

• Fixed installation on Windows.

1.3.3 (2020-02-02)

• Python 3 compatibility.

1.3.2 (2020-02-01)

• mpl2nc man page.

1.3.1 (2020-02-01)

• When input is a directory convert files in alphabetical order.

1.3.0 (2020-02-01)

• Fixed NRB issues (swaped channels and incorrect application of the dead time correction).
• Fixed command line argument processing.

1.2.0 (2019-12-20)

• Support for afterpulse, overlap and dead time correction files.
• NRB (experimental).

1.1.1 (2018-04-19)

• Fixed type conversion bug on Windows.

1.1.0 (2018-04-18)

• Added global file attributes.
• Fixed syntax error in the script.

1.0.0 (2018-04-18)

• Initial version.

Contact

For support or reporting bugs contact Peter Kuma <peter@peterkuma.net>.

See also

ALCF, ccplot, ccbrowse, cl2nc, mrr2c