PySPLIT: a Package for the Generation, Analysis, and Visualization of HYSPLIT Air Parcel Trajectories

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory’s HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single Particle Lagrangian Transport) model Drax98, Drax97 uses a hybrid Langrangian and Eulerian calculation method to compute air parcel trajectories and particle dispersion and deposition simulations. Air parcels are hypothetical small volumes of air with uniform characteristics. The HYSPLIT model outputs air parcel paths projected forwards or backwards in time (trajectories) and is used in a variety of scientific contexts. Here we present the first package in the mainstream scientific Python ecosystem designed to facilitate HYSPLIT trajectory analysis workflow by providing an intuitive API for generating, inspecting, and plotting trajectory paths and data.