Today we're celebrating the 10th birthday of BEAM! The first version was released on the 6th of December 2002. Since that time, our user community has grown steadily and we have got a lot of valuable contributions and useful feedback that helped us making BEAM what it is today. The BEAM project team is looking forward to continue updating, improving and maintaining the software. Big thanks to ESA and all contributors for supporting BEAM!
The BEAM Development Team
06. Dec 2012
BEAM 4.10.3 is now available
On 22 June 2012, we have released BEAM 4.10.3.
The focus of BEAM 4.10.3 lies on fixing several major bugs, for example regarding downwards compatibility when importing pins. Additionally, we made some helpful improvements, such as accuracy enhancement for pixel-based geolocations.
For a complete list of changes please see the issue summary.
The installer for BEAM 4.10.3 can be downloaded from the BEAM download page.
22. Jun 2012
BEAM 4.10 now available
As of 09 May 2012, BEAM 4.10 has been released!
We have introduced a large number of new features; see below for a summary.
BEAM has been greatly enhanced by a number of efficient and user friendly tools supporting validation activities. A number of tools now allow for comparing satellite data with correlative data (e.g. in-situ data or other reference data) imported from external sources. The former statistics tool window has been split into multiple, dedicated tool windows each providing a number of new functions.
General enhancements
Generate (ROI) masks from plots: mark a value range in the plot area (histogram, scatter, profile plots) and create a mask comprising the pixels that fall into that value range. The mask is immediately displayed as an overlay in the satellite image view and can be used as a new region of interest for statistical analyses;
Zoom into plot areas using the mouse wheel;
Axes in plots, if applicable can now use a log10-scaling;
Inspect and export (copy to clipboard) plot data as tabulated data.
Profile plot enhancements
extract satellite data from a transect or track and display it, optionally averaged over an NxN pixel box, optionally filtered by a ROI mask, optionally together with correlative data;
synchronise pixel positions: click the transect graphs in the plot and display a cursor which is shown in both, the plot and also along the track figure shown in the satellite image view.
Correlative plot
extract satellite data at geographical points, optionally averaged over an NxN pixel box, optionally filtered by a ROI mask, and display against correlative data fields in a scatter plot;
display regression line and information;
display the 1:1 identity line.
Scatter plot
compare two raster datasets and display a density plot of pixel frequencies, optionally filtered by a ROI mask;
quickly invert density colors;
Histogram
generate histograms of raster data, optionally filtered by a ROI mask;
bin cells of the histogram can now be log10 scaled, thus turning a logarithmic into a normal distribution.
Statistics
generate common statistical variables, including commonly used percentile thresholds, histogram and percentile plots;
optionally compute statistics for one or multiple masks in one go.
In order to import the correlative data for the new validation tools, support for multiple types of text-based point and vector data sources has been added: plain text, tab-separated CSV files, data extracts from MERMAID in-situ database, and SeaDAS 6.x ship-tracks can now be read and used as vector data within VISAT. All additional columns are kept and, if numerical, may serve as a variable used in the scatter or profile plots.
Double-clicking the imported vector data in the product browser window displays it in a tabular view similar to double-clicking a band which will an image view.
Imported point data can now be interpreted as a path or track and will be displayed accordingly in an image view. Additional numerical columns of such imported point data can be directly displayed in the profile plot.
The VISAT colour manipulation tool window has been enhanced by log10 scaled colour bars.
Three new readers have been added which allow for
reading data products of the new VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument. This capability is provided by the SeaDAS Ocean Colour reader which has been developed by the NASA OBPG as part of SeaDAS 7 (http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/forum/oceancolor/board_show.pl?bid=28).
reading plain text, CSV files into the BEAM product data model; thus, input from such files may be used for example with the BEAM Graph Processing Tool 'gpt' command-line. Also a corresponding writer is available for CSV.
reading ordinary RGB image files (JPEG, PNG, GIF, ...). Products imported from images comprise the bands red, green, blue with associated wavelength and a grey band which is a linear combination of the three.
The VISAT file import / export menus have been revised due to the meanwhile large number of various data formats BEAM is able to import from and export to.
The following BEAM command-line tool enhancements (see 'gpt -h' on the command-line) have been added
The pixel extraction operator 'PixEx' now uses an extended wildcard syntax to recursively collect source products from a list of directories.
A new operator 'Merge' allows for copying raster data from other data products to a specified 'master' product.
The BEAM Java core data model has been revised: vector data is now based on the OGC-standard for simple features.
The installers for BEAM 4.10 can be downloaded from the BEAM download page.
09. May 2012
Calvalus - An efficient processing system for cal/val and algorithm development is now available
Brockmann Consult successfully completed the ESA Calvalus project - A system which performs efficient bulk processing of large amounts of satellite data. Calvalus aims at supporting Earth Observation cal/val activities and algorithm development by providing fast access to mission-wide satellite data and a highly configurable processing environment. The Calvalus system utilises Apache Hadoop and the ESA BEAM development platform and achieves its enhanced performance from the massive parallelisation and data-local execution of processing tasks.
14. Nov 2011
BEAM is mentor at ESA SOCIS: Apply now!
ESA Summer of Code in Space (SOCIS) is a pilot programme run by the Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency that offers student developers stipends to write code for various space-related open source software projects.
Through SOCIS, accepted student applicants are paired with mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers.
BEAM has been accepted as a mentoring organization by ESA. Students can now apply for suggested ideas, through the SOCIS Webpage, until 27th of July. For a list of suggested ideas see the SOCIS Ideas Page.
20. Jul 2011
BEAM 4.9 is now available
The new BEAM 4.9 release comes with a new Envisat MERIS data processor, named 'Radiometry Correction'. It combines a Smile-effect correction, an equalisation, a radiance-to-reflectance conversion and a new radiometric re-calibration. For exporting pixels from a bunch of data products a new tool has been introduced. Another 4.9 feature is that files can now be dragged from the file explorer onto the VISAT products view in order to open them.
For a complete list of changes please see the issue summary.
The installer for BEAM 4.9 can be downloaded from the BEAM download page.
12. May 2011
SMOS-Box 2.1.1 released
SMOS-Box 2.1.1 is now available for download. Version 2.1.1 fixes issues with the export of SMOS grid point data to the Earth Explorer and CSV formats.
03. Dec 2010
SeaDAS 7 frontend will build on BEAM rich client platform
More than a year ago we announced that BEAM has met the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) in order to dicuss a possible migration of the SeaDAS IDL frontend to the BEAM Java rich client platform. The new SeaDAS 7 source code repository can be found at http://github.com/seadas. For SeaDAS users who want to stay informed or want to give feedback to the SeaDAS team can go to a new board in the SeaDAS 7 development forum.
28. Oct 2010
New MERIS L1 Equalization processor and updates for BEAM 4.8
The MERIS L1 Equalization processor, a new processor for MERIS Level 1 data products, is now available. It performs a radiometric equalization of the MERIS L1b products. It reduces detector-to-detector and camera-to-camera systematic radiometric differences and results into a diminution of the vertical stripping observed on MERIS L1b products.
Additionally, several modules of BEAM have been updated. The changes are listed in the issue summary.
16. Sep 2010
CHRIS-Box 1.5.2 released
CHRIS-Box 1.5.2 is now available for download. It is a mere maintenance update which allows the CHRIS-Box to be run together with BEAM 4.8, the latest release.
02. Aug 2010
EPR C-API 2.2 released
A maintenance release of Envisat Reader API has been released. The API now functions correctly on 64-bit architectures.
The second version of GlobToolbox is now available for download. It extends the first version of the GlobToolbox by a number of tools tackling the time dimension. First of all, a time series manager allows to define and edit time series. A time series player allows vividly visualising a time series by providing the control elements for navigating through a time series, either manually or automatically. And a time series graph has been developed which may be used to compare values of different measures, such as TSM or SST, for a specified time series.
Apart from time series, the GlobToolbox 2.0 additionally allows to export arbitrary global products to the widely used NetCDF/CF-format.
30. Jul 2010
BEAM 4.8 released
In this release we have added a number of new readers to enable BEAM to work with even more remote sensing products. In particular we have added readers for products originating from the SPOT VEGETATION programme, for Landsat TM products in GeoTIFF format, for HDF-EOS gridded products as well as a reader for generic NetCDF/CF-products. BEAM 4.8 also allows to export products to the widely used data format NetCDF/CF.
As another feature it is now possible to apply "auto-grouping" in the product tree; that is, product nodes whose names begin equally are automatically put into a common group.
The installer for BEAM 4.8 can be downloaded from the BEAM download page.
Version 4.7.1 of BEAM is a maintenance update. Multiple issues have been addressed to improve the usability of VISAT with the focus on the management of image masks and regions of interest, and their display. It also fixes a number of minor bugs and additionally improves the BEAM Graph Processing Framework (GPF API) in better supporting the development of "window processing" such as image filters and convolutions.
The BEAM CHRIS-Box project has been brought into life in order to support users of data of the CHRIS sensor onboard of the ESA Proba platform. The CHRIS-Box comprises the following add-on modules for BEAM:
Noise Reduction
Cloud Screeening
Atmospheric Correction
Geometric Correction
For more information, please refer to the CHRIS-Box Wiki.
The first version of the GlobToolbox is now available for download. It contains multiple data product reader in order to read products the various Glob* projects. Because of that we also call this release the 'Reader Pack'. It does not yet contain tools for generation, inspection and analysis of time series. These fuctionality will be provided with the next releases. If you like, have a look into the GlobToolbox Wiki
03. Mar 2010
SMOS-Box 2.0 released
Version 2.0 of the SMOS-Toolbox for BEAM (SMOS-Box) was released last week, a few days after the first calibrated SMOS images had been delivered.
The toolbox has been brought into life in order to support users of data acquired by ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, which was launched into orbit from northern Russia on 2 November. BEAM and the SMOS-Box are user tools, which ESA/ESRIN is providing free of charge to the earth observation community.
Version 2.0 of the SMOS Toolbox comes with support for SMOS L1c & L2 user data, and ECMWF, LAI, VTEC, and LSMASK auxiliary data products and brings improved performance for the display of SMOS image data and the calculation of statistics.
Brockmann Consult is developing the SMOS-Toolbox for BEAM under ESA contract initiated by S. Delwart (ESTEC) and P. Regner (ESRIN).
01. Mar 2010
Now Available: BEAM 4.7
The final version of BEAM 4.7 is out now. We want to thank our users for the valueable feedback we have gotten regarding the RC1 release. Read more about the new release in the change log and the news entry about the Release Candidate. For an overview of the changes made to the API please refer to our Wiki - BEAM 4.7 API Changes.
22. Feb 2010
Now Available: BEAM 4.7 Release Candidate 1
The first release candidate of BEAM version 4.7 has now been made available for public review today. The BEAM development team is keen to obtain your feedback on the following new features and enhancements:
VISAT now provides a Geometry Management allowing users to draw and manipulate geometries (vector data) or import them from ESRI Shapefiles. Geometries are now an integral part of the BEAM data model.
The VISAT Mask and ROI Management has been completely revised. Any number of named raster data masks can be defined by band math expressions, value ranges and from existing geometry. Each mask can serve as ROI for raster data analysis.
The Statistics, Histogram, and Scatter Plot tool windows have been enhanced in order to support the new, named ROIs. The Statistics tool window can now operate on multiple ROIs.
Thanks to the great GeoTools library, BEAM now offers more than 100 predefined, map projections based on their EPSG codes. For user-defined map projections you can now select from 25 map projection transformations and over 100 geodetic datums. Since the new Reprojection, Mosaicing and Orthorectification processors are developed using the BEAM Graph Processing Framework (GPF), they now offer a powerful command-line and can be used in any GPF XML processing graph for batch mode pre- or post-processing. Finally, the runtime performance of this tools could be drastically improved.
The Navigation tool window has been improved. It now offers the possibility to display a synchronized pixel cursor in all image views.
The World Map tool window has been completely revised. It now uses a very high-resolution RGB (NASA Blue Marble) in which you can easily pan and zoom in and out.
11. Jan 2010
SMOS-Box 2.0 scheduled for release
Version 2.0 of the SMOS-Toolbox for BEAM (SMOS-Box) is going to be released by the end of November, a week before the SMOS 'first light', which is expected to occur in the second week of December.
The toolbox has been brought into life in order to support users of data acquired by ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, which was launched into orbit from northern Russia on 2 November. BEAM and the SMOS-Box are user tools, which ESA/ESRIN is providing free of charge to the earth observation community.
Version 2.0 of the SMOS Toolbox comes with support for SMOS L1c & L2 user data, and ECMWF, LAI and VTEC auxiliary data products. It offers the ability to write spatial subsets extracted from SMOS L1c & L2 data in Earth Explorer format, and brings improved performance for the display of SMOS image data and the calculation of statistics.
Brockmann Consult is developing the SMOS-Toolbox for BEAM under ESA contract initiated by S. Delwart (ESTEC) and P. Regner (ESRIN).
