bioRad: Biological Analysis and Visualization of Weather Radar Data

Introduces a number of new functions and parameters and includes bugfixes. All issues included in this release can be found here.

• New function attribute_table() to quickly tabulate scan attributes (#365).

• New function get_iris_raw_task() to returns task from IRIS files (#411).

• New functions is.vpi() and summary() for vpi objects (#380, #405).

• New function write_pvolfile() to write polar volumes to ODIM hdf5 format (#470, #471).

• New functions Math.pvol(), Math.scan(), Ops.pvol(),Ops.scan(),Ops.param(): standard mathematical operations for param, scan and pvol objects.

• apply_mistnet(), nexrad_to_odim() and read_pvolfile() can now use local vol2bird installation (#416, #398).

• beam_profile_overlap() and integrate_to_ppi() bugfix that affected profiles with only NA values (#396).

• calculate_param() now also works on PPIs (#316) + bugfix for lost attributes (#401) and long expressions without name (#399).

• calculate_vp() now sets default range_max to 35km (#206) + has a new optional parameter height_quantile to calculate flight altitude quantiles (#485) + parameters for local mistnet (#418, #488).

• composite_ppi() now composites multiple PPI parameters at once (#390, #393) + bugfix for ylim parameter (#389).

• get_scan() warns when multiple scans with the same elevation are equally close to the requested elevation and add option to return all (#414).

• integrate_profile() now sets default interval_max to 1h (#481) and has a new argument interval_replace. The function can now integrate at altitude resolutions smaller than the altitude bin spacing. New option "antenna" for alt_min parameter, setting the altitude of the antenna as the minimum altitude (#472). Directional angles are now always mapped to the 0-360 degree domain (#489).

• integrate_to_ppi() and other functions are sped up by avoiding duplicate input argument checking (#358) + radar name now added to output (#425, #443). Bugfix affecting profiles consisting of primarily NA/NaN values (#415), which are now treated as zeros.

• map() bugfix for transparency (#438) and base layer (#468).

• plot.vpi() now has an elev parameter (#412).

• plot.vpts() now supports custom color scales (#444). It can plot speed and direction as colours (#424) + height offset fixed in plots (#198) + bugfix negative zlim values (#402).

• read_cajun() bugfix for incorrect conversion of linear eta to reflectivity (#403).

• read_vpts() bugfix for missing height attribute (#409).

• regularize_vpts()'s fill parameter now allows to specify a time interval over which to perform nearest neighbour interpolation to fill gaps of missing profile data. (#475) + bugfix for max_interval parameter (#480, #484, #475).

• scan_to_spatial() now creates points for cell centers (#430).

• The package now accounts for rstart and astart from the ODIM specification (#434).

• Clearly indicate when a speed is ground speed (#462).

• Improved documentation and unit tests for a number of functions thanks to an online bioRad sprint (June 2021).

• GitHub Actions are set up to automatically test changes (#428).