SIFT

SIFT (Satellite Information Familiarization Tool) is a visualization tool for satellite data. It provides a graphical interface that can be used for e.g. fast visualization, scientific data analysis, training, cal/val activities and operations.

SIFT is built on open source technologies like Python, OpenGL, PyQt5, and makes use of the Pytroll framework for reading and processing the input data. It can be run from Mac, Windows, and Linux. The SIFT application is provided as a python library called "uwsift". It can also be installed as a standalone application.

SIFT's main website is http://sift.ssec.wisc.edu/.

The Git repository where you can find SIFT's source code, issue tracker, and other documentation is on GitHub: https://github.com/ssec/sift

The project wiki with some in-depth usage and installation instructions can also be found on GitHub: https://github.com/ssec/sift/wiki

Developer and configuration documentation can be found on https://sift.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

What's new in SIFT 2.0

Many new features have been added starting from the version 2.0 of SIFT, including:

• reading of data from both geostationary (GEO) as well as low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite instruments
• visualization of point data (e.g. lightning)
• support for composite (RGB) visualization
• an improved timeline manager
• integration of a statistics module
• full resampling functionalities using Pyresample
• an automatic update/monitoring mode
• partial redesign of the UI/UX
• ... many more small but useful features!

History

SIFT was originally created and designed at SSEC/CIMSS at the University of Wisconsin - Madison as a training tool for US NWS forecasters. Later, EUMETSAT, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, joined the project contributing many new features and refactoring various portions of the project to support instrument calibration/validation workflows as well as additional scientific analysis. CIMSS and EUMETSAT now work on the project together as well as accepting contributions from users outside these groups.

EUMETSAT contributions, leading up to SIFT 2.0, were carried out by ask – Innovative Visualisierungslösungen GmbH.

Data Access and Reading

SIFT uses the open source python library Satpy to read input data. By using Satpy, SIFT is able to read many satellite instrument file formats, especially in the meteorology domain. The full list of available Satpy readers can be found in Satpy's documentation. Note however that SIFT may not be able to display or understand all data formats that Satpy can read. SIFT defaults to a limited set of readers; head to the configuration documentation for customizing your SIFT.

Installation

SIFT can be installed as an all-in-one bundled application or the python library "uwsift" can be installed in a traditional python environment.

Detailed installation instructions can be found on the GitHub Wiki.

Contributors

SIFT is an open source project welcoming all contributions. See the Contributing Guide for more information on how you can help.

Building and releasing

For instructions on how SIFT is built and packaged see the releasing instructions. Note that these instructions are mainly for SIFT developers and may require technical understanding of SIFT and the libraries it depends on.