KAPy is an open-source and flexible framework that can be used to generate climate indicators anywhere in the world, working from datasets such as CMIP and CORDEX together with observations. KAPy is a ground-up python-based rethink of the pipeline originally developed to power the Danish Meteorological Institute's Klimaatlas climate service, but is intended to be used more widely.
Here we describe the basic steps to install and configure KAPy. First, you need to get a copy of the KAPy source code onto the machine where you want to work. This is most easily done by downloading the zip of the latest version from https://github.com/Klimaatlas/KAPy/archive/refs/heads/main.zip. Unzip the downloaded file to an appropriate location and you've got yourself a copy of KAPy.
Alternatively, if you have git installed on your machine, you can simply clone the latest version of the code directly from the repository:
git clone https://github.com/Klimaatlas/KAPy.gitNext, we need to setup the Python environment, containing the packages used by KAPy. Add-on libraries in Python are referred to as "packages" and their installation is maintained by a package manager, of which there are many to choose from (e.g. Anaconda, Conda, Miniconda, Mamba, Micromamba etc). The example code given here is for the Conda package manager - you can download it from https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/index.html if you don't have it already, but KAPy should work just as well with other package managers. The examples are also for a Linux environment - however, a similar approach will hold if you want to try and get KAPy running in Windows.
A list of packages required to run KAPy can be found in the file ./workflow/envs/env.yaml. In the case of Conda, this list can be used to create an environment as follows:
conda env create -f ./workflow/envs/env.yamlThe resulting environment (called KAPy) is a self-contained setup that has everything necessary to run KAPy. The KAPy environment needs to be activated prior to use:
conda activate KAPyAnd so you're ready to go. To get familiar with the workings of KAPy, we recommend looking at the document listed below, and particularly the Tutorials.
In the future, you may need to update the environment to reflect changes. This can be done with:
conda env update --file ./workflow/envs/env.yaml --pruneDocumentation for KAPy is contained in the ./docs folder.
KAPy is in active development and welcomes all contributions, both large and small.
If you wish to cite KAPy in your work, please cite this repository (https://github.com/Klimaatlas/KAPy/) and the release version. A publication describing KAPy will be prepared in the future.
KAPy is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. A copy of this license is available in the root director (LICENSE).
A code of conduct for the KAPy community is found in the Code of Conduct. In short: be kind.
The development of KAPy is financed via a grant from the Danish Central Government to the Danish Meteorological Institute.
KAPy takes its name from joining the KA from DMI's Klimaatlas with the Py from Python, in the style of many Python libraries.
More importantly, the name is also a homonym for the phrase ka pai from Te Reo Māori, the language of the Māori people, the tangata whenua (indigenous people) of Aotearoa New Zealand. The phrase means simply "good", but can also be used as praise, as in "well done". e.g.
Son: Look Dad! I made a Klimaatlas in Python!
Dad: Ka pai, son, ka pai!