Manipulating obs_seq files with the obs_sequence_tool

Please see the program obs_sequence_tool document for detailed information and examples.

The obs_sequence_tool is the primary means to manipulate observation sequence files.

Observations sequence files are linked lists of observations organized by time. The observations may appear in any order in the file, but traversing the linked list will result in observations ordered by time.

The obs_sequence_tool can be used to combine observation sequences, convert from ASCII to binary or vice-versa, extract a subset of observations, etc.

When you are testing your DA application, you should use the obs_sequence_tool to extract one or a small number of observations from an existing observation sequence file for assimilation. Testing your application using a small number of observations will allow you to test and troubleshoot problems much faster than performing a full-scale assimilation.