Convert TRRM Real Time Binary File into ESRI ASCII

Seven simple steps for converting TRMM binary to ASCII grid using MATLAB

Step1:

 %Open TRMM realtime binary file

trmmFile = fopen('E:\TrmmBinary Processing\3B42RT.2012.03.27.09z.bin', 'rb');  

Step2:

%Move file pointer to the begining of  file

frewind(trmmFile);

Step3:

%Read TRMM value from the binary file having 1140 rows and 480 columns

precipitation = fread(trmmFile, [1440,480], 'float32','b');

Step4:

%Shift precipitation by 90 degree to relate data with equator

precipitation = rot90(precipitation);

 Step5:

%Assign ESRI ASCII GRID HEADER

%After rotaion by 90 degree ncols changed into 1440 from 480 and nrows

%changed into 480 from 1440

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We will miss the "father of GIS"

Dr. Roger Tomlinson has passed away. Tomlinson is generally recognized as the "father of GIS.” He is the visionary geographer who conceived and developed the first GIS for use by the Canada Land Inventory in the early 1960s.  This and continuing contributions led the Canadian government to give him its highest civilian award, the Order of Canada, in 2001.  Text for that award reads, “he pioneered its uses worldwide to collect, manage, and manipulate geographical data, changing the face of geography as a discipline.”

Tomlinson tells the story of how this came to be.  In the early 1960s he was working as a photo interpreter for Spartan Air Services in Canada.  They had a contract to identify the best location for a tree plantation in Kenya.  They turned to their young geographer Tomlinson and asked him to develop a methodology.  He tried various manual methods for overlaying various environmental, cultural, and economic variables, but all were too costly.  He turned to computers and found the solution.  Subsequently he sold this approach to the Canada Land Inventory that had the responsibility of using data to assist the government in its land use planning activities.  His GIS approach reduced the task from three years and eight million Canadian dollars to several weeks and two million dollars.
 

He went on to serve the community in many ways.  He chaired the International Geographical Union’s GIS Commission for 12 years, where he pioneered the concepts of worldwide geographical data availability. He is a past president of the Canadian Association of Geographers a recipient of its rare Canadian Award for Service to the Profession.
 
Other awards followed including the James R. Anderson Medal of Honor for Applied Geography (1995) and the Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award (2005) from the American Association of Geographers.  He was the first recipient of the Aangeenbrug award and also the first recipient of ESRI’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1997). National Geographic gave him its rare Alexander Graham Bell Award for exceptional contributions to geographic research (2010). He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the recipient of multiple honorary doctorates – in addition to his own PhD from University College London.  

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Call for Proposals, Presentations and Workshops: Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial 2014, Portland, Oregon (FOSS4G 10th Anniversary)

FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) is pleased to invite proposals for workshops, papers, and presentations for its 2014 conference to be held in Portland, Oregon, USA from September 8th to 13th.

The annual FOSS4G conference is the largest global gathering for all those currently or potentially working with open source geospatial software. It brings together a mix of developers, users, decision makers and observers from a broad spectrum of organizations and fields of operation for six days of workshops, presentations, discussions, and cooperation.

Conference Dates

Sep 8th-9th: Workshops

Sep 10th-12th: Main Conference

                                                              Sep 13th: Code Sprint

For more information or to keep up to date on news from FOSS4G 2014, follow @foss4g on Twitter, subscribe to our announcements list, or contact: foss4g2014-info@osgeo.org.

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