ecCodes

ecCodes is an open-source software library for encoding, decoding, validating and manipulating meteorological data messages in the WMO GRIB and BUFR formats. Developed and maintained by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), it serves as the successor to ECMWF's earlier GRIB-API and BUFR-API projects.

Core functionality includes reading and writing GRIB and BUFR messages, accessing and modifying metadata, and performing filtering and transformation operations. It supports GRIB editions 1 and 2, as well as BUFR, and is designed to be efficient and robust for large datasets used in numerical weather prediction and atmospheric research. It provides utility libraries with a C API and language bindings, notably Python bindings through the eccodes module, enabling integration in Python workflows, as well as Fortran and C applications.

ecCodes also offers a set of command-line tools and examples for inspecting message contents and metadata, converting between formats, and validating message conformance to WMO standards.

Licensing and availability: ecCodes is open-source and released under the Apache License 2.0. The project is hosted by ECMWF on GitHub and distributed via its website, and is widely adopted in meteorological centers, research institutions, and industry.