Click here to download AirSea (tar-gzipped; about 14 MB).
AirSea version updated on 10/25/2017. See enclosed README.rtf for list of upgrades and bug fixes.
WHAT IS AIRSEA?
AirSea is a complex of more than 500 interlocking Matlab-based programs for managing, analyzing, and modeling data. It has special options for managing meteorological, oceanographic, and topographic data. It may be used for plotting and performing general arithmetic operations on any kind of scalar data stored as columns or rows of numbers in a flat ASCII file. Matlab version 5.0 or higher is required.
Matlab is proprietary software available from:
The Mathworks
24 Prime Parkway
Natick, Massachusetts 01756-1500
USA
SETTING UP AIRSEA
1. Copy airsea.m and airsea.dir to your PC, Mac, or Unix machine. Place both inside your Matlab directory on the same level.
2. Launch Matlab.
3. Set path (with subfolders) to read in airsea.dir.
4. Save path and close.
5. "cd" Matlab pointer to the same level as airsea.dir.
6. Type "airsea" at the Matlab prompt.
If you are successful, the following menu should roll up:
GETTING STARTED
There are far too many options in AirSea for a complete manual to be written at this time. The descriptions of the functions given by the menus are probably enough to get you started. The README file now contains a nearly complete list of options under each menu -- try searching keywords to locate the function you need.
Your data should be in flat ASCII files, with a ".txt" (preferred) or ".asc" filename extension. Metadata (data descriptions, etc.) should be commented out with "%" symbols. The remainder of the file should be tab- or space- delineated columns of numbers. For time series, AirSea understands date-time stamps in the WHOI format, placed in column one of each line of the file. (The WHOI format is YYYYMMDDHHMM.)
AirSea will look for these files in one of two places, depending on the user mode.
Anonymous user mode. AirSea defaults to this mode when first launched following Matlab startup. Place your flat ASCII datafiles in the AirSea_Txtfls.dir directory.
Named user mode. There are four steps to set up this mode:
1. Under the AirSea_Usrfls.dir directory, create a subdirectory named username.dir. The ".dir" extension is required. You may also create several layers of subdirectories within this directory. Each one must have the ".dir" extension.
2. Place your flat ASCII datafiles in the username.dir directory.
3. Launch AirSea and select option 51 (Settings) on the main menu. Create a user definition by logging in with a three-character ID. (Any three characters except "sup", which is reserved. See below.) AirSea will recognize this as a new user, and perform the necessary operations to store your preferences. (It will reload your preferences in the future, when you log-in again using the ID.)
4. After you have created the new user ID, use Settings options 2 - 6 to select the ASCII read and write directories. You may read from one directory and write to another, or you can make both of them the same.
You may create as many user ID's as you wish. To manage all of them (e.g. list existing ID's and delete unwanted ID's), log in as "sup" (supervisor). This opens up a new list of options in the Settings menu.
INTERNAL HELP
See main menu item 52, or enter the negative value of the listed option number at the menu prompt.
AirSea is a service of the Critical Information Project. AirSea is a work in progress, and I make no guarantees about its performance. If you find a bug, or come up with a better way to do something the programs do, please tell me about it. If I agree that it's a bug or use your suggestion, I'll update the applicable programs, thank you by name in the program comments, and post an updated version to the web. AirSea is currently being developed using Matlab version R2007b. It should still function with older versions of Matlab, but is not being checked for backward compatibility. If you are using an older version of Matlab and discover a compatibility problem, please let me know and I will try to correct it.
Anonymous user mode. AirSea defaults to this mode when first launched following Matlab startup. Place your flat ASCII datafiles in the AirSea_Txtfls.dir directory.