[GRASSLIST:3459] Importing data from MBSystem (GMT)

[Gordon Keith]

I'm processing swath data using MBSystem 
http://www.mbari.org/data/mbsystem/html/mbsystem_home.html and I'd like to 
import the data from MBSystem into grass rasters for further analysis.

In the past I've imported xyz data as sites and then converted them to a 
raster, but I'd like to import MBSystem grids directly as rasters, as 
MBSystem has better gridding tools.

The mbgrid program http://www.mbari.org/data/mbsystem/html/mbgrid.html 
supports a number of grid formats including (from the above page):

-----
First, the simple grid format identifiers are:
        gridkind = 1:   ASCII table
        gridkind = 2:   binary file (GMT version 1 GRD file)
        gridkind = 3:   netCDF file (GMT version 2 GRD file)
        gridkind = 4:   Arc/Info and ArcView ASCII grid
        gridkind = 100: GMT netCDF 4-byte float format [Default]
        gridkind = 101: Native binary single precision floats in scanlines 
with leading grd header
        gridkind = 102: Native binary short integers in scanlines with leading 
grd header
        gridkind = 103: 8-bit standard Sun rasterfile (colormap ignored)
<other option ommitted>
Second, a GMT grid format string has the form:
        =id[/scale/offset[/nan]]
where id is the GMT format id, and the other values
are optional.
-----

I don't fully understand what all the MBsystem gridding options are nor what 
all the GRASS import options.

Could anyone advise me on which would be the best format for importing into 
GRASS, and is it possible to import the default GMT netCDF format directly, 
and which GRASS program to use.

Thanks in advance
Gordon


-- 

Gordon Keith
Programmer/Data Analyst
Marine Acoustics
CSIRO Marine Research
http://www.marine.csiro.au

There are no significant bugs in our released software 
that any significant number of users want fixed.
     - Bill Gates, 1995