Home
OpenDrift is a software for modeling the trajectories and fate of objects or substances drifting in the ocean, or even in the atmosphere.
OpenDrift is open source, and is programmed in Python. As the software is very generic, it is rather a "framework" than a "trajectory model" in the traditional sense. Trajectory models for specific purposes (e.g. oil drift, search and rescue, larvae drift etc) may reuse all common functionality from the core model, and need only implement a Python Class describing the purpose-specific processes (physics/biology etc). See Requirements and Data model for more detailed information.
- Open source, GPL v2 license, providing full transparency - no black boxes
- Very simple installation, core OpenDrift requires only Python standard libraries
- Platform independent, runs on Linux, Mac/OS X, Windows
- Fast - typical simulation time is ~30 seconds for a 66 hour simulation with 1000 particles
- Modular, may simulate transport and fate of any kind of of particles (oil, ships, persons, icebergs etc.)
- Simple to make new modules, based on existing modules or blank template
- May use input forcing data (e.g. current, wind and waves) from any model, in any file format and any map projection
- avoids need to preprocess driver data
- map reprojection and vector rotation performed on-the-fly, using PyProj library
- may use input forcing from remote datasets (e.g. Thredds)
- May use backup driver models (e.g. current, wind, waves) for robustness if first choice is not available
- May run backwards in time by simply specifying a negative time step
- Output saved to CF-compliant netCDF files (but export modules may be written for other formats).
- Basic graphical user interface (presently supports only OpenOil and Leeway)
- Coming soon:
- Input from ensemble models
OpenDrift is still in early development phase, and should be used with care for real studies and applications.
The latest version of OpenDrift can be downloaded from here or with Git:
git clone https://github.com/knutfrode/opendrift.git
OpenDrift and its dependencies is installed with the command:
python setup.py develop --user```
The ```--user``` flag can be omitted if you want OpenDrift to be available for other users on the same machine.
To be able to run the commandline scripts, add the folder scrips to your PATH, e.g in .bashrc:
```export PATH=$PATH:$OPENDRIFT_FOLDER/opendrift/scripts/```
>**NOTE: If you installed OpenDrift before August 2016 and are using Git, it is recommended to delete the complete opendrift folder, and download and install again as explained above. Otherwise problems might arise due to old files remaining after "git pull".**
The [Basemap](http://matplotlib.org/basemap/) package might need to be installed separately. The recommended way is to first install [Miniconda](http://conda.pydata.org/miniconda.html), and then install Basemap with the command
```conda install basemap```
OpenDrift has been tested on various Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems.
#### Testing
To test that OpenDrift works as expected, run the script ```testall``` in the root folder. The last line of the output should report that all tests have been executed successfully.
For a demonstration of various capabilities, run some of the executable example scripts located in the subfolder ```examples```. Some of the scripts use sample netCDF files provided in the test_data folder, and others obtain data from online resources (Thredds).
If this works well, you may play with the model by editing the example scripts.
[Here is a detailed explanation of the steps involved when running the model](How-to-run-a-trajectory-simulation).
### License
OpenDrift is licensed under [GPL v2.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt)
### Contact
OpenDrift is under development at [MET Norway](http://www.met.no) in cooperation with [Institute of Marine Research](http://www.imr.no).
Please contact knutfd@met.no for any questions, or create an [issue](https://github.com/knutfrode/opendrift/issues).