Introduction
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pyCMBS is a simple and flexible toolkit to perform quick analysis of geospatial data, visualize it as well as to perform benchmarking of climate model simulations. Its a very lightweight and powerful tool, easy to install and to use. pyCMBS comes with full python power included.


Why to use?
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Why and when should you use pyCMBS?

*Geospatial data analysis ...*
 
 * you work with geospatial data
 * you work a lot with netCDF files
 * you analyze timeseries
 * you do geostatistical analysis
 * you want to generate nice looking maps
 * you are bored in re-coding you own scripts, but want to increase your scientific throughput using a powerfull tool just using a few lines of code?

*Model benchmarking ... the easy way!*
 
 * you are widely using models or are developing models?
 * you want to know how good your model performs
 * you search for a flexible tool for automated model performance metrics, comparing e.g. different models or model versions against control simulations or observational datasets

Some of the features pyCMBS provides for model benchmarking are

 * automated and efficient pre-processing and regridding of model data and observations in a standardized way
 * standard, modular and flexible libraries for plots and diagnostics
 * automatic report generation with different levels of detail
 * comparison against up to four different observational datasets at the same time
 * user friendly configuration of plots and processing
 * state-of-the-art model skill scores