Other Software Tools

In addition to the software available from the Paleoclimatology Program, the following annotated bibliography of software may be useful.

ANALOG. A program to search for, sort, and select analogs from a reference sample set for a single fossil sample. Several dissimilarity measures can be selected, and modern environmental data can be associated with the reference samples. Published as a USGS open-file report, and distributed by Peter Schweitzer, Mail Stop 955, U. S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA 22092.

BugsMCR. BugsMCR is a piece of free software for producing temperature reconstructions from (fossil) beetle (Coleoptera) data. It allows the creation and/or import of species/sample lists in MS Excel format, and provides both numerical and graphical output as MS Excel files. Graphical output is in the form of TMax(low-high) and TMin(low-high) bar graphs, with the option of exporting thermal overlap matrices (climate space maps) and species lists for each sample.

CABFAC. A program to provide rotated or non-rotated Q-mode factor analysis using a cosine-theta matrix. This program has been used to provide quantitative estimates of past environment from fossil samples by CLIMAP and other groups. CABFAC factors were used with REGRESS to provide an equation relating faunal factors to environment using a linear or non-linear multiple regression. Regress is not generally distributed because this procedure is commonly available in statistical software packages. THREAD was used by CLIMAP and others to hindcast environment from fossil samples using the regression determined by REGRESS. THREAD is not generally distributed because this transformation is also easily accomplished in statistics or spreadsheet packages.

CALPAL. The Cologne Radiocarbon Calibration and Palaeoclimate Research Package. CalPal is a PC-Win program package designed to support research on hominid behavioural response to pleistocene climate change. CalPal allows calendric age-conversion ("calibration") of 14 C-data by a variety of methods (2D-Dispersion, Wiggle Matching, Monte Carlo). The package allows the dating results to be presented in high-quality Postscript graphs in context with climate data (e.g. ice-cores).

CLIM-X-DETECT. For detecting extremes in climate records. Written and distributed by Dr. Manfred Mudelsee of the University of Leipzig. Reference: Mudelsee M. (in press). CLIM-X-DETECT: A Fortran 90 program for robust detection of extremes against a time-dependent background in climate records. Computers and Geosciences, in press.

CoralXDS. Coral X-radiograph Densitometry System. CoralXDS is a Windows-based program which provides a tool for measurement of linear extension, density, and calcification from coral X-radiographs. These quantities are determined for high-density, low-density, and annual bands.

IMAGE, XIMAGE, CANVAS. A group of programs written for mac, pc, and unix platforms designed to visualize and manipulate array data. Similar to the commercially-available Spyglass software. Distributed at no charge by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Champaign, IL, USA.

PaleoSoftTools is a suite of software tools for paleoclimate reconstruction produced at the University of Salamanca

RAMPFIT for Windows quantifies transitions (start and end points) and trends in climatic time series. Written and distributed by Dr. Manfred Mudelsee of the University of Leipzig. Reference: Computers and Geosciences, 26:3, pp. 293-307, April 2000.

Singular Spectrum Analysis Toolkit from UCLA Also includes tools for maximum entropy and multi-taper analyses. Described in Dettinger, M. D., et al., Software expedites singular spectrum analysis of noisy time series, EOS, Jan. 10, 1995, pp. 12-21.

TAUEST for Windows quantifies persistence (memory) in unevenly spaced time series, without requiring interpolation. Written and distributed by Dr. Manfred Mudelsee of the University of Leipzig. Reference: Computers & Geosciences 28:1 pp. 69-72, February 2002.

Wavelet analysis A tool to perform wavelet analysis on time series, including significance and confidence testing, and options to select wavelet types and other parameters. Includes code for IDL, Matlab and Fortran, and has a web form to paste data and obtain results. By Christopher Torrence and Gilbert Compo.