6S Binaries

This distribution provides access to compiled binaries of the 6S Radiative Transfer Model as package resources.

It does not provide a Python interface to 6S. For a Python interface, see Robin Wilson's Py6S.

Currently, this project includes binaries for 6SV1.1 and 6SV2.1. It requires Python 3.9+ and supports Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Install

Pre-compiled wheels can be installed from PyPI:

$ pip install 6s-bin

If you are using poetry, you can add this distribution as a dependency using poetry add:

$ poetry add 6s-bin

Installing from source

Building this distribution involves downloading, validating, and compiling the 6S source code. See build.py for details about the build process. A Fortran 77 compiler is required to compile 6S.

Build and install from source distribution:

$ pip install --no-binary=6s-bin 6s-bin

Build and install from git:

$ pip install '6s-bin @ git+https://github.com/brianschubert/6s-bin'

Build and install from local source tree:

$ pip install .

Python Usage

Call sixs_bin.get_path(version) to get the path to an installed 6S binary. The parameter version is required, and must be either the string "1.1" or "2.1".

>>> import sixs_bin

>>> sixs_bin.get_path("1.1")
PosixPath('<path to virtual environment>/lib/python3.X/site-packages/sixs_bin/sixsV1.1')

>>> sixs_bin.get_path("2.1")
PosixPath('<path to virtual environment>/lib/python3.X/site-packages/sixs_bin/sixsV2.1')

If you also have Py6S installed, you can call sixs_bin.make_wrapper() to get a Py6S.SixS instance that's configured to use the installed 6SV1.1 binary.

>>> wrapper = sixs_bin.make_wrapper()

>>> wrapper
<Py6S.sixs.SixS object at 0x...>

>>> wrapper.sixs_path
PosixPath('<path to virtual environment>/lib/python3.X/site-packages/sixs_bin/sixsV1.1')

>>> wrapper.run()
>>> wrapper.outputs.apparent_radiance
134.632

Command Line Usage

Run python3 -m sixs_bin --help to see all available command line options.

$ python3 -m sixs_bin --help
usage: python3 -m sixs_bin [-h] [--version]
                           [--path {1.1,2.1} | --exec {1.1,2.1} | --test-wrapper]

6S v1.1 and 6S v2.1 binaries provided as package resources.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help        show this help message and exit
  --version         show program's version number and exit

command:
  --path {1.1,2.1}  Print the path to the specified 6S executable from this package's
                    resources.
  --exec {1.1,2.1}  Execute specified 6S executable in a subprocess, inheriting stdin and
                    stdout. This option is provided as a convenience, but its not
                    generally recommended. Running 6S using this option is around 5%
                    slower than executing the binary directly, due the overhead of
                    starting the Python interpreter and subprocess.
  --test-wrapper    Run Py6S.SixS.test on this package's 6SV1.1 executable.

To get the path to an installed 6S binary, run sixs_bin as an executable module with the --path flag specified. The --path flag takes one required argument, which must be either the string 1.1 or 2.1:

$ python3 -m sixs_bin --path 2.1
<path to virtual environment>/lib/python3.X/site-packages/sixs_bin/sixsV2.1

If you need the path to the containing directory, use dirname. For example:

$ SIXS_DIR=$(dirname $(python3 -m sixs_bin --path 2.1))
$ echo $SIXS_DIR
<path to virtual environment>/lib/python3.X/site-packages/sixs_bin

Test

Tests can be run using pytest:

$ pytest

Some tests are included to check compatibility with Robin Wilson's Py6S wrapper. These tests will be ignored if Py6S is not available.