sidescanpy.io.netcdf#

NetCDF IO for single-frequency channels.

This module reads and writes individual SideScanFrequencyChannel datasets to standalone NetCDF (.nc) files. For full multi-frequency surveys with auxiliary records, use sidescanpy.io.hdf5 instead.

Public entry points#

  • read_frequency_channel() — read a NetCDF file back into a validated channel. Accepts chunks= for lazy/dask-backed loading.

  • write_frequency_channel() — write a channel to disk with per-variable encoding (gzip on backscatter, raw on per-ping scalars).

Conventions#

  • Engine: h5netcdf.

  • Compression: gzip level 4 on per-sample variables (e.g. backscatter_intensity). Per-ping scalars uncompressed.

  • Chunking: HDF5_CHUNK_PING along the ping axis on disk. Override on read via chunks={"ping": N}.

  • Round-trip is bit-exact for variable values, attributes, and processing_history.

See docs/format/netcdf.md for full reference.

2026 rshomberg@uri.edu

Modules