xradar

What it is and what it does

Xradar is a community radar data toolkit built on xarray that standardizes the import and export of weather radar observations. It reads polar radar data from multiple formats—including NEXRAD Level 2, CfRadial1/2, ODIM_H5, and several proprietary formats—and represents them in a common xarray DataTree model aligned with the WMO FM301/CfRadial2 standard. This allows downstream processing pipelines to work with a single, predictable data structure regardless of source format.

The package is designed for the open-radar-science community and emphasizes interoperability with existing radar processing software. It supports georeferencing, angle reindexing, and format transformation, with particular strength in reading NEXRAD data (including streaming from S3 chunk buckets) and exporting to standardized formats. The codebase is actively maintained and has been ported from the wradlib library; it is considered stable for implemented readers and writers, though it remains in beta pending full standard adoption.

Use it for:

• Ingest NEXRAD Level 2 data from local files or S3 buckets for weather research and operational analysis.
• Convert between radar formats (e.g., proprietary Furuno or Gamic to CfRadial2) for data sharing and archival.
• Build xarray-based radar processing pipelines that leverage dask for distributed computation and existing xarray ecosystem tools.
• Georeference polar radar data and perform angle reindexing for gridded analysis or visualization.
• Standardize radar metadata and coordinates across multiple instruments and formats for multi-radar studies.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Xradar reads and writes weather radar data in multiple formats (CfRadial, ODIM_H5, NEXRAD, and others) and loads them into xarray DataTree structures for analysis and processing.

Yes. Xradar is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and fills a clear role in the open-radar-science ecosystem. Low install friction and permissive MIT licensing make it a straightforward choice for any weather radar data workflow. The beta status reflects pending standard finalization, not instability in implemented readers; if your format is listed as supported, the code is production-ready. Start here if you work with NEXRAD, CfRadial, or ODIM_H5 data.

Install

xradar on PyPI

pip install xradar

uv add xradar

poetry add xradar

Installing xradar

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-wheel distribution. Active maintenance with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-01. Requires 11 runtime dependencies including xarray, h5py, and netCDF4, which are standard scientific Python packages.

License in practice

MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions. Documentation is separately licensed CC-BY-SA-4.0.

Quickstart

pip install xradar

import xradar
dt = xradar.open_nexradlevel2_datatree('radar_file.gz')
dt.to_netcdf('output.nc')

Requires Python >= 3.11. HDF5 system libraries needed for h5py and netCDF4 dependencies.

Verify before relying

• Whether all import-only formats (DataMet, Furuno, Gamic, HPL, Iris, MRR, Rainbow, UF) are production-ready or remain experimental.
• Performance characteristics when streaming NEXRAD chunks from S3 or processing large radar volumes.
• API stability guarantees given the stated beta status pending CfRadial2/FM301 standard finalization.

Package facts

Evidence: xradar-0.12.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: xradar

Tags

More Scientific/Engineering packages