Improve user api and docs

README.md

@@ -47,11 +47,9 @@ pip install nsidc-iceflow
 
 ### Using `iceflow`
 
-```python
-from nsidc import iceflow
-
-# TODO
-```
+See
+[Getting started with iceflow](https://iceflow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting-started.html)
+for information and examples about how to use `iceflow`.
 
 ## Credit
 

docs/getting-started.md

@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+# Getting started with iceflow
+
+## Jupyter Notebooks
+
+[Jupyter notebooks](https://docs.jupyter.org/en/latest/) provide executable
+examples of how to use `iceflow`:
+
+- [iceflow-example.ipynb](./iceflow-example.ipynb) provides an example of how to
+  search for, download, and interact with `ILATM1B v1` data for a small area of
+  interest. This notebook also illustrates how to perform
+  [ITRF](https://itrf.ign.fr/) transformations to facilitate comparisons across
+  datasets. To learn more about ITRF transformations, see the
+  [corrections.ipynb](https://github.com/nsidc/NSIDC-Data-Tutorials/blob/main/notebooks/iceflow/corrections.ipynb)
+  notebook in the
+  [NSIDC-Data-Tutorials GitHub repository](https://github.com/nsidc/NSIDC-Data-Tutorials).
+
+- [iceflow-with-icepyx.ipynb](./iceflow-with-icepyx.ipynb) shows how to search
+  for, download, and interact with a large amount of data across many datasets
+  supported by `iceflow`. It also illustrates how to utilize
+  [icepyx](https://icepyx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) to find and access ICESat-2
+  data. Finally, the notebook provides a simple time-series analysis for
+  elevation change over an area of interest across `iceflow` supported datasets
+  and ICESat-2.
+
+## API overview
+
+`iceflow` provides a simple API for finding, downloading, and accessing
+iceflow-supported datasets.
+
+### Finding data
+
+To find `iceflow`-supported data for an area of interest and timeframe, use
+[`find_iceflow_data`](nsidc.iceflow.find_iceflow_data):
+
+```
+import datetime as dt
+
+from nsidc.iceflow import (
+    find_iceflow_data,
+    DatasetSearchParameters,
+    BoundingBox,
+)
+
+
+search_results = find_iceflow_data(
+    dataset_search_params=DatasetSearchParameters(
+        bounding_box=BoundingBox(lower_left_lon=-103.125559, lower_left_lat=-75.180563, upper_right_lon=-102.677327, upper_right_lat=-74.798063),
+        temporal=(dt.date(2009, 11, 1), dt.date(2009, 12, 31)),
+    ),
+)
+```
+
+### Downloading data
+
+Once search results have been found, download data with
+[`download_iceflow_results`](nsidc.iceflow.download_iceflow_results):
+
+```
+from pathlib import Path
+from nsidc.iceflow import download_iceflow_results
+
+downloaded_filepaths = download_iceflow_results(
+    iceflow_search_result=iceflow_search_result,
+    output_dir=Path("/path/to/data/dir/"),
+)
+```
+
+### Accessing data
+
+Iceflow data can be very large, and fitting it into memory can be a challenge!
+To facilitate analysis of iceflow data,
+[`make_iceflow_parquet`](nsidc.iceflow.make_iceflow_parquet) provides a
+mechanism to create a [parquet](https://parquet.apache.org/docs/overview/)
+datastore that can be used alongside [dask](https://www.dask.org/):
+
+```
+import dask.dataframe as dd
+from nsidc.iceflow import make_iceflow_parquet
+
+parquet_path = make_iceflow_parquet(
+    data_dir=Path("/path/to/data/dir/"),
+    target_itrf="ITRF2014",
+)
+df = dd.read_parquet(parquet_path)
+```
+
+Note that `make_iceflow_parquet` creates a parquet datastore for the data in the
+provided `data_dir` with the data transformed into a common
+[ITRF](https://itrf.ign.fr/) to facilitate analysis. Only datetime, lat, lon,
+and elevation fields are preserved in the parquet datastore.
+
+To access and analyze the full data record in the source files, use
+[`read_iceflow_datafiles`](nsidc.iceflow.read_iceflow_datafiles):
+
+```
+from nsidc.iceflow import read_iceflow_datafiles
+
+# Read all of the data in the source files - not just lat/lon/elev.
+df = read_iceflow_datafiles(downloaded_files)
+
+# Optional: transform lat/lon/elev to common ITRF:
+from nsidc.iceflow import transform_itrf
+df = transform_itrf(
+    data=df,
+    target_itrf="ITRF2014",
+)
+```
+
+Note that `read_iceflow_datafiles` reads all of the data from the given
+filepaths. This could be a large amount of data, and could cause your program to
+crash if physical memory limits are exceeded.