PyFLEXTRKR: a flexible feature tracking Python software for convective cloudanalysis

This paper describes the new open-source framework PyFLEXTRKR (Python FLEXible object TRacKeR), a flexible atmospheric feature tracking software package with specific capabilities to track convective clouds from a variety of observations and model simulations. This software can track any atmospheric 2D objects and handle merging and splitting explicitly. The package has a collection of multi-object identification algorithms, scalable parallelization options, and has been optimized for large datasets including global high-resolution data. We demonstrate applications of PyFLEXTRKR on tracking individual deep convective cells and mesoscale convective systems from observations and model simulations ranging from large-eddy resolving (similar to 100s m) to mesoscale (similar to 10s km) resolutions. Visualization, post-processing, and statistical analysis tools are included in the package. New Lagrangian analyses of convective clouds produced by PyFLEXTRKR applicable to a wide range of datasets and scales facilitate advanced model evaluation and development efforts as well as scientific discovery.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a new open-source framework called PyFLEXTRKR, which is a flexible atmospheric feature tracking software package capable of tracking convective clouds from various observations and model simulations. The software can track any atmospheric 2D objects and handle merging and splitting explicitly. It includes multi-object identification algorithms, parallelization options, and optimization for large datasets. The applications of PyFLEXTRKR on tracking individual convective cells and mesoscale convective systems are demonstrated, and the package also provides visualization, post-processing, and statistical analysis tools. The new Lagrangian analyses provided by PyFLEXTRKR facilitate advanced model evaluation and development efforts as well as scientific discovery.