ESOCLIM

What does ESOCLIM do?

ESOCLIM generates estimates of monthly climate values by calculating values of the monthly mean climate surfaces for any number of the climate variables listed in the surflist file. ESOCLIM calculates values at particular locations, which can be supplied in the form of a list of sites or a grid. Usually the surfaces require elevation as the third independent variable.

This means that input data in grid form usually contains elevation values, otherwise known as a Digital Elevation Model. Some surfaces use a variable other than elevation as the third independent variable (e.g. Distance from coast), so occasionally you may need grids of these other variables.

When using input data in site form, you usually need to supply longitude (or easting), latitude (or northing) and elevation on each line of the file. If you are using surfaces that use a variable other than elevation as the third independent variable, you will also need to supply a value for these variables on each line of the file.

Figure 5: Using ESOCLIM

Factors that influence the quality and value of the output

With ESOCLIM you need to be aware of the following factors:

Output files

In the following table, For grid output, ESOCLIM writes each climate variable estimate for each month to a separate file. The number of rows and columns in each output grid matches that of the input grid, as do the cell size and grid boundary coordinates. If an input grid cell is flagged with the no-data value, the corresponding cell in each output grid is also flagged with the same no-data value.
Selected output type Files generated
Text sites report rootname.snn
ARC/INFO FLOATGRID rootname_mmm.snn and rootname_mmm.hdr
ARC/INFO ASCIIGRID
or Text grid
or Binary grid
or ARC/INFO UNGENERATE 		rootname_mmm.snn
IDRISI Image file
  • For months 1-9: rootnamemsnn.img and rootnamemsnn.doc
  • For months 10-12: rootnamemmnn.img and rootnamemmnn.doc
IDRISI vector file
  • For months 1-9: rootnamemsnn.vec and rootnamemsnn.dvc
  • For months 10-12: rootnamemmnn.vec and rootnamemmnn.dvc
PATN rootname.dta, rootname.clb, rootname.prm
For example, an ARC/INFO ASCIIGRID file containing estimates of precipitation for January could be called mysites_jan.s03.

Note that for IDRISI files, only the first 4 characters of the filename part of rootname are used so that the resulting filenames conform to the DOS 8.3 filename restriction.

Format of text sites report

The first 28 lines are header information, including the run date and the surface name. The remainder of the file consists of the climate variable estimates for each site, each line in the following format: You can use the unix tail command to chop off the header for import to a spreadsheet.
   tail +29 filename.snn > output_filename
tail is also available for Microsoft Windows.

Scaling and precision of outputs

For formatted output the precision for the various values is as follows:
Climate variable Decimal places
Temperature (° C) 1
Rainfall (mm) 0
Radiation (Mj/m2 /day) 1
All other climate variables 1
When writing ARC/INFO UNGENERATE files (point data), ARC/INFO ASCIIGRID or IDRISI ASCII files, the values are multiplied by an appropriate power of 10 then rounded to the nearest integer to preserve the indicated precision. I.e. 1 decimal places requires scaling by 10, 0 decimal places requires no scaling.
Climate variable Multiplier
Temperature (° C) 10
Rainfall (mm) 1
Radiation (Mj/m2 /day) 10
All other climate variables 10

Step-by-step guide to running ESOCLIM

Here are the basic steps for running ESOCLIM from the ANUCLIM main window.
  1. Use Change working directory (File menu) to change to the directory where you want to write your output files. This step is not essential, but will mean that you don't have to specify the directory for your output files. It will also help if your input data files are in or near this directory.
  2. Check that the surflist file selected on the main window is the correct one. Usually there will only be one - the default surflist. If in doubt, choose Default surflist from the surflist menu.
  3. Check that the required region(s) (under the surflist filename) are checked on. There may be only one (Australia, for example), and it should be selected by default.
  4. Under the ESOCLIM menu, choose the option that matches the type of input data you want to process:
    • GRID from GIS files. Use this to generate grids of climate variable estimates from a DEM
    • GRID from plain-text files.
    • SITES from GIS files.
    • SITES from plain-text file. Use this to generate climate variable estimates for points in a text file containing site locations and other data.
  5. A new ESOCLIM window should appear. At the top of the window you can choose the surfaces you wish to use to generate the climate variable estimates. Select one or more surfaces by clicking in the checkboxes next to the surface names. By default, no surfaces are selected.

    If you have slope and aspect data for your sites or grid cells, and you have radiation-ratio tables for your area of study, you can choose to adjust the estimated radiation values for slope and aspect. Note that this is only available for a few areas. See Modification of radiation by slope and aspect for more information.

  6. Make a selection from the coordinate system menu. This should conform to the coordinates used in your input file.
  7. Underneath the coordinate system menu there will often be 1 or more menus or entry boxes to set. For longitude and latitude coordinates in a site file, you have the option of indicating that your data file doesn't have minus signs on its negative longitudes or latitudes. For UTM and TM coordinates where all the points are in one zone, you have to supply the coordinate reference information. See Coordinate systems and options for more information.
  8. If you are using a sites file as your input data, you will see a button labelled Sites file. If you are using grid input data, you will see a number of buttons including one labelled Elevation. Click Sites file to specify the name and format of your sites file, or click Elevation to specify the name of your DEM. Both of these buttons also have a neighbouring Favourites button which can be used to recall recently used data files. Using input data in the form of GIS site files (as opposed to plain-text site files) or in plain text grids is similar to using input data in grid form: each independent variable is in a separate file.

    If you have selected a surface that has something other than elevation as its 3rd independent variable, or if you have chosen to adjust radiation for slope and aspect, you will need to supply extra input data. For plain text site files, this extra data is supplied on each line of the data file. For grids and GIS site files, this data is supplied as separate files, and the buttons corresponding to these extra files will become active when required.

  9. Clicking the Sites file or Elevation buttons, or making a selection from the Favourites menu will pop up a new window on which you can select your data file and specify its format if required. If you use the Favourites menu, the chosen file will be preselected in the pop up window.
  10. The pop-up windows for grid and sites files are slightly different:
    • For GIS grid files, select your DEM (or other grid file) in the file chooser. ANUCLIM will work out whether it is an IDRISI, FLOATGRID or ASCIIGRID file, or some other unrecognised format. If the file format is recognised. the OK button will become active. Click the OK button to select the grid file.
    • For site files, you have to specify the data format using the file preview and the buttons on the pop-up window. See Specifying the format of plain text files for more information.
    If your input data happens to be in the form of plain text grids, you will notice that there are entry boxes on the ESOCLIM window where you can specify the grid limits and cell size.
  11. The following options can be set on the Options panel under ESOCLIM. Click the Options button on the main ESOCLIM window to display the options panel.

    Grid window (only for grid input data)

    If your input data is in the form of GIS grids or plain-text grids, you can choose to process just a rectangular section of your grid. Enter the north, south, east and west limits in the boxes provided. The values you enter should be in the same coordinate system as used in the grid you are using. In other words, enter longitude and latitude values if your grid boundaries are expressed in longitude and latitude, and enter easting and northing values if the grid boundaries are expressed in UTM coordinates. The values you enter must lie within the bounds of the selected grid file, the north value must be larger than the south value and the east value must be larger than the west value. If you leave a grid window boundary value blank it defaults to the edge of the grid in that direction. ANUCLIM will highlight invalid values in the grid window boundaries and display a small message indicating the problem.

    Generate output for...

    By default, ESOCLIM will generate climate variable estimates for each month of the year for each point or grid cell in the input data. You can select individual months by switching the associated checkbox on or off.

    Processing mode

    Sometimes you may want to run ESOCLIM as a batch job, rather than running it interactively. This is mainly useful for generating grids from a large DEM. If you select Generate command file, the Run button will change to Generate command file, and clicking it will bring up a dialog box that will let you save the command file. Note that under the normal interactive mode, the command file is also available after the run in the ANUCLIM preferences directory. See Advanced usage for more information.
  12. Click the Output file button to pop up the file chooser or type a filename in the entry box provided. Filenames are interpreted relative to the current working directory, so precede the filename with a directory path if you want it to go elsewhere. ESOCLIM will create one or more files with names formed by adding various extensions, or suffixes, to the filename you type. These files are...
    Extension File contains
    .log Diagnostic output from ESOCLIM
    .snn Text sites report, ARC/INFO UNGENERATE or ARC/INFO ASCIIGRID output.
    .snn, .hdr ARC/INFO FLOATGRID output.
    .img, .doc IDRISI grid output.
    .vec, .dvc IDRISI vector output.
    .dta, .clb, .prm PATN output.
    ESOCLIM will not overwrite existing files. Instead, it will rename files in danger of being overwritten by prefixing them with old_. Files that are renamed in this way are listed in the ESOCLIM log window.
  13. Check that the Output type menu is set to your desired form of output and change it if necessary. If you are processing site data, the default selection will be 'Text sites report', and if you are processing a grid, the default selection will be 'ARC/INFO ASCIIGRID'.
  14. Click the Run button to start processing your input file. If this button is inactive (greyed out), holding the mouse over it or clicking it will cause a small message to appear which should explain why the button is inactive. Usually this is because some piece of data has not been supplied. Once ESOCLIM has all its required inputs, the Run button will become active.

    Clicking the Run button should cause a log window to appear, and ESOCLIM will start processing your file. It will display informational and any error messages in the log window. These messages are also saved to the log file for later reference. See Common problems with input data for details on the most common types of formatting errors.

    The log file produced by ESOCLIM contains information on the countries, climate variable and overall geographical limits for the run, together with the total number of points in the user input file and the grid size where applicable.

    When ESOCLIM has finished processing, the blinking Running indicator will disappear, a Processing finished... message will be displayed, and the Run button will become active again. If you click the Stop button while ESOCLIM is running, processing will be halted, and your output files will be incomplete (a warning dialog will announce this). The same thing will happen if you click Close while ESOCLIM is running.

    If you have selected 'generate command file' on the options panel, the Run button will be labelled generate command file, and will pop up a file chooser so that you can save the command file for later use.