xCDAT

An extension of xarray for climate data analysis on structured grids.
https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat

Category: Climate Change
Sub Category: Climate Data Processing and Analysis

Keywords

cdat cf-conventions climate-analysis climate-data climate-data-analysis climate-research climate-science climate-sciences cmip cmip6 e3sm earth-system earth-system-data earth-system-science pcmdi python xarray xcdat

Keywords from Contributors

climate-model climate climate-model-evaluation climate-variability earthscience vtk

Last synced: about 11 hours ago
JSON representation

Repository metadata

An extension of xarray for climate data analysis on structured grids.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat
• Owner: xCDAT
• License: apache-2.0
• Created: 2021-04-02T18:38:33.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-10-10T17:38:42.000Z (24 days ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-10-29T03:40:04.901Z (5 days ago)
• Topics: cdat, cf-conventions, climate-analysis, climate-data, climate-data-analysis, climate-research, climate-science, climate-sciences, cmip, cmip6, e3sm, earth-system, earth-system-data, earth-system-science, pcmdi, python, xarray, xcdat
• Language: Python
• Homepage: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• Size: 14.2 MB
• Stars: 137
• Watchers: 9
• Forks: 16
• Open Issues: 58
• Releases: 20
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.rst
  • Changelog: HISTORY.rst
  • Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.rst
  • License: LICENSE
  • Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.rst
  • Citation: CITATION.cff
  • Zenodo: .zenodo.json
  • Notice: NOTICE

README.rst

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   Xarray Climate Data Analysis Tools

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xCDAT is an extension of `xarray`_ for climate data analysis on structured grids. It
serves as a modern successor to the Community Data Analysis Tools (`CDAT`_) library.

**Useful links**:
`Documentation `__ |
`Code Repository `__ |
`Issues `__ |
`Discussions `__ |
`Releases `__ |
`Mailing List `__

Project Motivation
------------------

The goal of xCDAT is to provide generalizable features and utilities for simple and
robust analysis of climate data. xCDAT’s scope focuses on routine climate research
analysis operations such as loading, averaging, and regridding data on structured grids
(e.g., rectilinear, curvilinear). Some key xCDAT features are inspired by or ported from
the core CDAT library, while others leverage powerful libraries in the xarray ecosystem
(e.g., `xESMF`_, `xgcm`_) to deliver robust APIs. xCDAT has the ability to operate
generally across model and observational datasets that follow the `CF Metadata Convention`_
by interpreting CF Metadata through the `cf_xarray`_ package.

The xCDAT core team's mission is to provide a maintainable and extensible package
that serves the needs of the climate community in the long-term. We are excited
to be working on this project and hope to have you onboard!

.. _xarray: https://github.com/pydata/xarray
.. _CDAT: https://github.com/CDAT/cdat

Getting Started
---------------

The best resource for getting started is the `xCDAT documentation website`_.
Our documentation provides general guidance for setting up xCDAT in an Anaconda
environment on your local `computer`_ or on an `HPC/Jupyter`_ environment. We also
include an `API Overview`_ and `Gallery`_ to highlight xCDAT functionality.

.. _xCDAT documentation website: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
.. _computer: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/getting-started.html
.. _HPC/Jupyter: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/getting-started-hpc-jupyter.html
.. _API Overview: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/api.html
.. _Gallery: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/gallery.html

Community
---------

xCDAT is a community-driven open source project. We encourage discussion on topics such
as version releases, feature suggestions, and architecture design on the
`GitHub Discussions`_ page.

Subscribe to our `mailing list`_ for news and announcements related to xCDAT,
such as software version releases or future roadmap plans.

Please note that xCDAT has a `Code of Conduct`_. By participating in the xCDAT
community, you agree to abide by its rules.

.. _GitHub Discussions: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat/discussions
.. _Code of Conduct: CODE-OF-CONDUCT.rst
.. _mailing list: https://groups.google.com/g/xcdat

Contributing
------------

We welcome and appreciate contributions to xCDAT. Users and contributors can view and
open issues on our `GitHub Issue Tracker`_.

For more instructions on how to contribute, please checkout our `Contributing Guide`_.

.. _GitHub Issue Tracker: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat/issues
.. _Contributing Guide: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/contributing.html

Features
--------

* Extension of xarray's ``open_dataset()`` and ``open_mfdataset()`` with post-processing options

  * Generate bounds for axes supported by ``xcdat`` if they don't exist in the Dataset
  * Optional selection of single data variable to keep in the Dataset (bounds are also
    kept if they exist)
  * Optional decoding of time coordinates

    * In addition to CF time units, also decodes common non-CF time units
      ("months since ...", "years since ...")

  * Optional centering of time coordinates using time bounds
  * Optional conversion of longitudinal axis orientation between [0, 360) and [-180, 180)

* Temporal averaging

  * Time series averages (single snapshot and grouped), climatologies, and departures
  * Weighted or unweighted
  * Optional seasonal configuration (e.g., DJF vs. JFD, custom seasons)

* Geospatial weighted averaging

  * Supports rectilinear grid
  * Optional specification of regional domain

* Horizontal structured regridding

  * Supports rectilinear and curvilinear grids
  * Extends the `xESMF`_ horizontal regridding API
  * Python implementation of  `regrid2`_ for handling cartesian latitude longitude grids

* Vertical structured regridding

  * Support rectilinear and curvilinear grids
  * Extends the `xgcm`_ vertical regridding API

Things We Are Striving For
--------------------------

* xCDAT supports CF compliant datasets, but will also strive to support datasets with
  common non-CF compliant metadata (e.g., time units in "months since ..." or "years
  since ...")

  * xCDAT leverages `cf_xarray`_ to interpret CF attributes on ``xarray`` objects
  * Refer to `CF Metadata Convention`_ for more information on CF attributes

* Robust handling of dimensions and their coordinates and coordinate bounds

  * Coordinate variables are retrieved with ``cf_xarray`` using CF axis names or
    coordinate names found in xarray object attributes. Refer to `Metadata Interpretation`_
    for more information.
  * Bounds are retrieved with ``cf_xarray`` using the ``"bounds"`` attr
  * Ability to operate on both longitudinal axis orientations, [0, 360) and [-180, 180)

* Support for parallelism using `dask`_ where it is both possible and makes sense

.. _Metadata Interpretation: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/faqs.html#metadata-interpretation
.. _xESMF: https://xesmf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
.. _regrid2: https://cdms.readthedocs.io/en/latest/regrid2.html
.. _xgcm: https://xgcm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
.. _dask: https://dask.org/
.. _cf_xarray: https://cf-xarray.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
.. _CF Metadata Convention: http://cfconventions.org/

Releases
--------
xCDAT (released as ``xcdat``) follows a feedback-driven release cycle using continuous
integration/continuous deployment. Software releases are performed based on the bandwidth
of the development team, the needs of the community, and the priority of bug fixes or
feature updates.

After releases are performed on `GitHub Releases`_, the corresponding ``xcdat`` package
version will be available to download through Anaconda `conda-forge`_ usually within a day.

Subscribe to our `mailing list`_ to stay notified of new releases.

.. _conda-forge: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/xcdat
.. _GitHub Releases: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/xcdat

Useful Resources
-----------------

We highly encourage you to checkout the awesome resources below to learn more about
Xarray and Xarray usage in climate science!

- `Official Xarray Tutorials `_
- `Xarray GitHub Discussion Forum `_
- `Pangeo Forum `_
- `Project Pythia `_

Projects Using xCDAT
--------------------

xCDAT is actively being integrated as a core component of the `Program for Climate Model
Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) Metrics Package`_ and the `Energy Exascale Earth
System Model Diagnostics (E3SM) Package`_. xCDAT is also included in the `E3SM Unified
Anaconda Environment`_ that is deployed on various U.S. Department of Energy
supercomputers to run E3SM software tools.

.. _Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) Metrics Package: https://pcmdi.github.io/pcmdi_metrics/
.. _Energy Exascale Earth System Model Diagnostics (E3SM) Package: https://e3sm-project.github.io/e3sm_diags/_build/html/main/index.html
.. _E3SM Unified Anaconda Environment: https://e3sm.org/resources/tools/other-tools/e3sm-unified-environment/

Acknowledgement
---------------

xCDAT is jointly developed by scientists and developers from the Energy Exascale
Earth System Model (`E3SM`_) Project and Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and
Intercomparison (`PCMDI`_). The work is performed for the E3SM project, which is
sponsored by Earth System Model Development (`ESMD`_) program, and the Simplifying ESM
Analysis Through Standards (`SEATS`_) project, which is sponsored by the Regional and
Global Model Analysis (`RGMA`_) program. ESMD and RGMA are programs for the Earth and
Environmental Systems Sciences Division (`EESSD`_) in the Office of Biological and
Environmental Research (`BER`_) within the `Department of Energy`_'s `Office of Science`_.

.. _E3SM: https://e3sm.org/
.. _PCMDI: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/
.. _SEATS: https://www.seatstandards.org/
.. _ESMD: https://climatemodeling.science.energy.gov/program/earth-system-model-development
.. _RGMA: https://climatemodeling.science.energy.gov/program/regional-global-model-analysis
.. _EESSD: https://science.osti.gov/ber/Research/eessd
.. _BER: https://science.osti.gov/ber
.. _Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/
.. _Office of Science: https://science.osti.gov/

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Contributors
------------

Thank you to all of our contributors!

.. image:: https://contrib.rocks/image?repo=xCDAT/xcdat
  :alt: xCDAT contributors
  :target: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat/graphs/contributors


Endorsements
------------

xCDAT is proudly endorsed by the `Xarray ecosystem`_, the `Pangeo community`_,
`World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)`_, and `Python for Atmosphere and Ocean Science (PyAOS)`_
as a recommended tool for geoscience and climate data analysis.

.. _Xarray ecosystem: https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/user-guide/ecosystem.html#geosciences
.. _Pangeo community: https://www.pangeo.io/#ecosystem
.. _World Climate Research Programme (WCRP): https://wcrp-cmip.org/tools/
.. _Python for Atmosphere and Ocean Science (PyAOS): https://pyaos.github.io/packages/#general-utilities

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License
-------

xCDAT is licensed under the terms of the Apache License (Version 2.0 with LLVM exception).

All new contributions must be made under the Apache-2.0 with LLVM exception license.

See `LICENSE`_ and `NOTICE`_ for details.

.. _LICENSE: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat/blob/main/LICENSE
.. _NOTICE: https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat/blob/main/NOTICE

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

``LLNL-CODE-846944``

        

Citation (CITATION.cff)

cff-version: 1.2.0
message: "If you use xCDAT in your research, please cite it as below."
title: "xCDAT: Xarray Climate Data Analysis Tools"
abstract: "xCDAT is an open-source Python package that extends Xarray for climate data analysis on structured grids. It simplifies common analysis operations such as spatial and temporal averaging, climatology calculations, and regridding, promoting software sustainability and scientific reproducibility."
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7216173
license: Apache-2.0
repository-code: "https://github.com/XCDAT/xcdat"
url: "https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/"
authors:
    - family-names: "Vo"
      given-names: "Tom"
      orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2461-0191"
      affiliation: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory"
    - family-names: "Po-Chedley"
      given-names: "Stephen"
      orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0390-238X"
      affiliation: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory"
    - family-names: "Boutte"
      given-names: "Jason"
      orcid: "https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3996-3772"
      affiliation: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory"
    - family-names: "Lee"
      given-names: "Jiwoo"
      orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0016-7199"
      affiliation: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory"
    - family-names: "Zhang"
      given-names: "Chengzhu"
      orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-0716"
      affiliation: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory"
preferred-citation:
    type: article
    title: "xCDAT: A Python Package for Simple and Robust Analysis of Climate Data"
    authors:
        - family-names: "Vo"
          given-names: "Tom"
          orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2461-0191"
        - family-names: "Po-Chedley"
          given-names: "Stephen"
          orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0390-238X"
        - family-names: "Boutte"
          given-names: "Jason"
          orcid: "https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3996-3772"
        - family-names: "Lee"
          given-names: "Jiwoo"
          orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0016-7199"
        - family-names: "Zhang"
          given-names: "Chengzhu"
          orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-0716"
    journal: "Journal of Open Source Software"
    volume: 9
    issue: 98
    pages: "6426"
    year: 2024
    month: 6
    doi: "10.21105/joss.06426"
    url: "https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.06426"

---

Owner metadata

• Name: xCDAT
• Login: xCDAT
• Email:
• Kind: organization
• Description: Xarray Climate Data Analysis Tools
• Website: https://xcdat.readthedocs.org
• Location:
• Twitter:
• Company:
• Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/87787695?v=4
• Repositories: 2
• Last ynced at: 2023-03-05T07:23:04.037Z
• Profile URL: https://github.com/xCDAT

---

GitHub Events

Total

• Create event: 36
• Release event: 4
• Issues event: 62
• Watch event: 21
• Delete event: 28
• Issue comment event: 272
• Push event: 266
• Pull request review event: 142
• Pull request review comment event: 120
• Pull request event: 69
• Fork event: 4

Last Year

• Create event: 35
• Issues event: 59
• Release event: 4
• Watch event: 19
• Delete event: 27
• Issue comment event: 264
• Push event: 258
• Pull request review comment event: 118
• Pull request review event: 140
• Pull request event: 67
• Fork event: 4

---

Committers metadata

Last synced: 3 days ago

Name	Email	Commits
Tom Vo	t****r@g****m	245
pochedls	p****y@g****m	20
Jason Boutte	j****5	18
Jiwoo Lee	l****3	9
Paul J. Durack	d****1@l****v	3
Jill Chengzhu Zhang	z****0@l****v	3
will-s-hart	w****t@m****k	1
Ana Ordonez	1****z	1

Committer domains:

• llnl.gov: 2
• maths.ox.ac.uk: 1

---

Issue and Pull Request metadata

Last synced: 4 days ago

More stats: https://issues.ecosyste.ms/repositories/lookup?url=https://github.com/xCDAT/xcdat

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Package metadata

• Total packages: 3
• Total downloads: unknown
• Total dependent packages: 0 (may contain duplicates)
• Total dependent repositories: 2 (may contain duplicates)
• Total versions: 45

---

Dependencies

Score: 8.045588280803528