Changelog

v0.6.0.dev0

Tracking and preprocessing

  • Added the modular stormtracker track, sample, compare, and convert command structure. The tracking command is implemented by pystormtracker.track.run_tracker; no package-level pystormtracker.track() function is exported.

  • Added algorithm-dependent tri-state filtering and subgrid-refinement controls. Omitted values use the direct tracker defaults: disabled for Simple and enabled for Hodges and HEALPix.

  • Added shared local quadratic subgrid refinement for regular and projected grids and local quadratic refinement on the HEALPix neighbor graph.

  • Added one spherical RectSphereBivariateSpline fit per periodic global Hodges frame and a bspline_val diagnostic in raw detections at each quadratic center. The spline does not currently optimize the center coordinate, and the current linker does not propagate the diagnostic to final tracks.

  • Added polar stereographic and HEALPix preprocessing with explicit lmax propagation, configurable projected extent and resolution, and corrected band-pass handling.

  • Added DCT filtering for regional grids, full-Gaussian geometry handling, and reduced-Gaussian metadata, pseudo-analysis, filtering, and regridding paths.

  • Corrected periodic-global and nonperiodic regional or projected boundary handling.

  • Added serial Hodges detection chunking followed by one global linking pass. Hodges and HEALPix remain serial-only; Simple supports serial, Dask, and MPI execution.

  • Added storm-object area and intensity-weighted ellipse diagnostics to raw Hodges detections. The current Hodges linker retains only the primary tracked variable.

Metrics and analysis

  • Added gridded cyclone amplitude, cyclone frequency, track frequency, Accumulated Cyclone Activity (ACA), and Accumulated Track Activity (ATA).

  • Added constant, Fisher, Cressman, linear, and quadratic spherical distance weights.

  • Added 24-hour difference variance, Eddy Kinetic Energy, and high-wind percentile metrics.

  • Added CORMAX, CCA/PCA truncation cross-validation, anomaly correlation coefficient, and fraction-of-variance-explained calculations through the metrics optional dependency.

  • Added spatiotemporal track matching and external-variable sampling.

Formats and interfaces

  • Added the unified CLI subcommands and finite-value validation for numerical arguments.

  • Added JSON-based sampling and comparison workflows and expanded conversion to IMILAST, TRACK tdump, JSON, and HTML outputs.

  • Added the eof optional dependency group for xeofs.

Testing and CI

  • Added unit and integration tests for refinement, Gaussian and reduced-Gaussian preprocessing, projected filtering, metrics, sampling, comparison, conversion, and modular CLI commands.

  • Added --run-slow for slow integration and historical regression cases.

  • Corrected the Docker Trivy image reference and included slow integration cases in the designated Linux CI run.

v0.5.0 - 2026-04-08

Features

  • High-Precision Derivatives: New kinematic-derivative functions for computing relative vorticity and divergence using spin-1 vector harmonics.

  • Planetary Constants: Standardized Earth radius to 6,371,220 m across derivatives and tracking geometry.

  • pst-convert & JSON Support: New utility for format conversion and a JSON format for track data.

  • Interactive Track Explorer: Web-based visualization with filtering and time animation.

  • Hodges (TRACK) Implementation: Added object detection, adaptive constraints, and Modified Greedy Exchange linking based on TRACK. Direct end-to-end TRACK validation remains ongoing.

  • Preprocessing & Performance: Improved spherical harmonic filtering and backend auto-detection.

  • Remote Zarr Support: Added support for remote Zarr datasets via HTTP, S3, and GS protocols.

  • Enhanced DataLoader: Refactored io.loader to io.data_loader with automatic format detection for NetCDF, GRIB, and Zarr.

  • Dependency Errors: Added error messages with installation instructions when optional dependencies (cfgrib, zarr) are missing.

  • Expanded Sample Data: Integrated ERA5 UV850 sample datasets and Zarr-formatted alternatives in utils.data.

Testing

  • NCL Validation: New integration test suite validated against NCL 6.6.2 reference data.

  • Format Auto-detection Tests: Added comprehensive tests for NetCDF, GRIB, and Zarr auto-detection in DataLoader.

CI/CD & Testing

  • Verification: Added documentation builds and expanded test coverage.

Maintenance

  • Spectral Backend Consolidation: Evaluated pyshtools, SHTns, and ducc0 for performance, accuracy, and portability. Selected ducc0 as the production spherical harmonic transform backend. Historical SHTns comparisons and NCL kinematic validation are documented separately; JAX is not a current runtime backend.

  • Strict Typing: Enabled strict mypy checks in core I/O modules and removed Any from the covered declarations.

  • Dependency Refinement: Introduced a dedicated zarr optional dependency group and updated the all extra.

v0.4.2 - 2026-03-19

Performance

  • Transitioned Dask backend to threaded scheduling for improved efficiency.

  • Decoupled chunk processing to reduce memory overhead.

  • Limited the default worker count to the available CPU count, with a maximum of four.

Features

  • Added --chunk-size (or -c) CLI argument to control processing granularity.

  • Updated Docker publishing tag selection.

Maintenance

  • Updated CI concurrency rules to cancel redundant builds.

v0.4.1 - 2026-03-18

Note: First release available on Conda-Forge.

Testing

  • Registered integration markers to resolve warnings in Conda-forge CI pipelines.

v0.4.0 - 2026-03-14

Architecture

  • Vectorized Data Model: Refactored from Python-object trajectories to an array-backed structure.

  • JIT-Optimized Kernels: Replaced core mathematical loops with Numba-compiled kernels for compiled execution.

  • Dask Integration: Implemented Dask multiprocessing with tree reduction in this release. Later releases replaced tree reduction with Gather-then-Link.

Features

  • GRIB Support: Introduced support for GRIB files via the cfgrib engine.

  • Multi-Variable Tracking: Support for tracking multiple variables per center using a flexible dictionary structure.

Performance

  • Vectorized Linker: Re-engineered the SimpleLinker using NumPy broadcasting for vectorized distance calculations.

  • Memory Efficiency: Implemented slots=True for dataclasses and flat-array extraction for centers.

v0.3.3 - 2026-03-10

Security

  • Integrated Trivy vulnerability scanning into the Docker build pipeline.

  • Added SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) and provenance attestations to all releases.

Maintenance

  • Refined Docker image tagging and unified caching scopes.

  • Simplified CI test matrix for faster verification.

v0.3.2 - 2026-03-09

CI/CD

  • Added support for ARM64 Docker images.

  • Migrated project management to uv for deterministic builds and faster dependency resolution.

  • Optimized Docker layer caching for faster image builds.

Maintenance

  • Updated project homepage and refined repository metadata.

v0.3.1 - 2026-03-08

Maintenance

  • Synchronized documentation versions and updated dependency lockfiles.

v0.3.0 - 2026-03-08

Features

  • IMILAST Export: Added support for exporting cyclone trajectories in the standard IMILAST intercomparison format.

  • Automated Data Fetching: Integrated pooch for automatic retrieval of ERA5 test datasets.

Refactoring

  • Xarray Native: Migrated detection pipeline to use Xarray for coordinate-aware processing.

  • Strict Typing: Achieved 100% mypy compliance and dropped support for Python 3.10 (enforced Python 3.11+ standards).

Infrastructure

  • Added Read the Docs documentation scaffolding.

  • Implemented tiered integration testing (Short vs. Full variants).

v0.2.2 - 2026-03-04

Note: First release available on PyPI.

Distribution

  • Established automated publishing to PyPI via GitHub Actions.

  • Added Zenodo DOI integration for scientific citation.

Documentation

  • Initial Read the Docs configuration.

  • Standardized PyPI installation instructions in README.

v0.2.1 - 2026-03-04

Maintenance

  • Metadata fixes and version synchronization.

v0.2.0 - 2026-03-01

Features

  • Dask Backend: Introduced task-parallel execution with automatic worker detection.

  • CSV Output: Transitioned from pickle to user-friendly CSV as the default output format.

Architecture

  • Python 3 Migration: Migration from Python 2.7 to Python 3.10+, including type hints and modern syntax.

  • NetCDF4 Migration: Switched from the legacy Nio library to netCDF4 for NetCDF data handling.

Refactoring

  • Extracted core logic into simple/ and models/ modules for better maintainability.

v0.0.2 - 2018-10-25

  • Added minmaxmode support for ERA-Interim Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSL) and Vorticity (VO) tracking.

v0.0.1 - 2016-01-11

  • Initial release.

  • Core cyclone tracking logic based on local extrema detection.