SIFT versions later than v1.0.6 may be able to read Himawari .DAT files directly into the workspace. For older versions, however, axitools will convert the base files (as stored at CIMSS on the cluster, for example) into the netCDF format that SIFT expects. Here are the steps to do that.

    1. Download the axitools software that can be found at this ftp site: ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/sift/dist/util/
    2. The axitools package will have a file format like this: axi-tools-vyyyymmdd.tar.bz2  These bz2 files can be unzipped with the bunzip2 unix command, i.e.:  bunzip2 axi-tools-v20181113.tar.bz2 
    3. Next, untar the file:  tar -xvf axi-tools-v20181113.tar
    4. Download Himawari data, with a format like this:  HS_H08_20191014_0450_B16_FLDK_R20_S1010.DAT — there are typically 10 files per full disk scene.
    5. You’ll now have a axi-tools directory, with a bin directory that includes this script:  cmi_changer.sh ;  if you invoke that script with ‘-h’ you’ll see a help.  To process the Full Disk Himawari data:
      • sh ./cmi_changer.sh -S “Full Disk” -R FD -C /home/scottl/axi/data/HS_H08_20191014_0450_B01_FLDK_R10
        • /home/scottl/axi/data/ contains all the Himawari data to transform.
        • Don’t use wildcards here — the script will interpret that as meaning you want to make a netCDF file for each .DAT file in the directory.  The script sees the entry above and interprets it to mean ‘Find all the files that start with this and combine them into one netCDF file’.
        • Note that the output of this shell script will be into the directory it is running from.
        • I made a simple script to do this with all 16 bands — B01, B02, B03,…B16.
        • The R10 ending is for B01, B02 and B04;  R05 is for B03; R20 is in all other bands (R = Resolution.
    6. Start up SIFT.  You can now load the created netCDF files.

 

You can do this with Japan sector imagery as well as Test imagery.  JP01 – JP04 are the 2.5-minute images that occur within each 10-minute span.