Treffer: Comparison of IDL and Python programming languages for analysing satellite imagery of Sargassum: SARTRAC Working Paper 2

The aim of this working paper is to provide guidance to new remote sensing researchers who are investigating Sargassum by offering a comparison of two commonly used programming languages for interpreting satellite imagery – Interactive Data Language (IDL) and Python. IDL is a programming language which is popular in image processing and in space science. ENVI image processing package is written in IDL which allows the user to exploit libraries associated with ENVI. However, it is not freely available. Python is a popular general-purpose programming language with a wide range of applications and is open source. Both are suitable options for detecting ocean surface Sargassum blooms in satellite imagery. This paper provides a comparative overview of the pros and cons of using each of these languages.