r-sig-geo'ers:

I've released an update to my spatial.tools package (v 1.0.2 on CRAN) for
your enjoyment.  This package is designed to add additional functionality
to existing core spatial packages, particularly
'raster'.  Besides the requisite bug fixes and minor function additions,
I'd like to direct your attention to two of its "major" functions:

- focal_hpc: a parallel engine for raster processing (works on both pixel
and focal based analyses).  This algorithm works in conjunction with any
parallel backend that can be registered with foreach (Rmpi, parallel,
snow), and can achieve asynchronous and (if supported by the OS) parallel
writes to the output file.  I've tried to design the function to be as
user-friendly as possible, so you can focus on writing raster functions and
not worrying about the parallel processing issues.  Check the examples
section for some hints on writing pixel-based and focal-based functions.

- projectRaster_rigorous: realizes area (not point) based
reprojection/resampling of rasters. Probably the most useful application of
this function is reprojecting/aggregating classification rasters, where the
output should be the most common (modal) class value from the input cells
into the output cells.  Because the function deals with raster/vector
intersections, it is significantly slower than a point-based resample, so I
recommend using it with a foreach backend running (which it will take
advantage of).

As always, if you find any bugs/have any suggestions please kick me an
email!

--jonathan


-- 
Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
Assistant Professor
Global Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing (GEARS) Laboratory
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
607 South Mathews Avenue, MC 150
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 217-300-1924
http://www.geog.illinois.edu/~jgrn/
AIM: jgrn307, MSN: jgrn307@hotmail.com, Gchat: jgrn307, Skype: jgrn3007

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