TauCoeff Inspection Utilities missing

[BenjaminTJohnson]

Motivation

Working with TauCoeff (Transmittance Coefficient) files is a routine but critical task when developing, validating, or debugging CRTM coefficient datasets. At present, there is no unified, lightweight mechanism to quickly inspect the contents of a TauCoeff file to determine what it contains, how it was generated, or whether it is internally consistent with expectations.

This lack of visibility creates friction in several common workflows:

• Verifying that a TauCoeff file corresponds to the intended algorithm (ODPS vs. ODAS)
• Confirming file format (Binary vs. NetCDF) before attempting to read it
• Diagnosing user-reported failures caused by mismatched coefficient files, build options, or runtime expectations
• Performing quick sanity checks on newly generated or externally supplied coefficient datasets without writing ad hoc code

As a result, developers and users often resort to trial-and-error runs, custom debugging builds, or one-off inspection programs, all of which slow down development and increase the risk of misinterpretation.

Proposed Solution

Introduce a dedicated TauCoeff inspection utility that:

• Automatically detects the file format (Binary .bin or NetCDF .nc)
• Identifies the underlying algorithm (ODPS vs. ODAS)
• Reads and prints high-level metadata and structural information using existing Info_* routines
• Works as a standalone command-line tool, independent of any specific application workflow

A companion lightweight ODPS-only inspection tool would further support rapid debugging of legacy binary ODPS files by directly dumping the ODPS_type structure.

Expected Benefits

• Faster diagnosis of coefficient-related issues
• Reduced need for custom debug code and repeated rebuilds
• Improved transparency and reproducibility when sharing TauCoeff files across teams
• A clear, documented entry point for users who need to understand what is in a TauCoeff file before using it

Scope

This issue tracks the creation and integration of one or more inspection utilities for TauCoeff files, along with minimal build-system support to make them easily accessible to developers and advanced users.

No changes to the TauCoeff file formats themselves are proposed.