20031201: CF 1.0 compliant wind data displayable in IDV?

>From: Richard Signell <address@hidden>
>Organization: SACLANTCEN
>Keywords: 200312011650.hB1GoMEH025672 IDV CF netCDF

Hi Rich -

>Is it possible to display CF-1.0 compliant wind time series data
>in IDV?   

Theoretically yes. ;-) read on....

>I read the Users Guide, but it wasn't clear to me that
>this should work generically.  When I load my file into IDV, it comes in
>as 2D gridded data, although it is really 1D (ok, it's technically
>4D, but with three singleton dimensions)

We made a decision a long time ago that if data had only one
vertical level, we could classify this as 2D data.  I'm going
to change that and see what effect it has.

>The file is attached, in case you want to take a peek.

There are a couple of ways that you should be able to do this.
The quickest would be:

1) Load the dataset into the IDV.
2) Select the Formula dataset.
3) In the Fields pane of the Data Selector, expand the System
tab and select the "Make wind vectors from u and v data"
(I know you have speed and dir, but this will work).
4) In the Displays pane, select "Vector Plan View".
5) Click the "Create Display" button.
6) When the parameter selector pops up, select the Wind Speed
for u and the Wind Direction for v, then click OK.
7) it should go off and plot the wind vectors.

However, that's all in theory since I can't get it to
work.  Two things are happening.  1) it is taking forever
to loop through all the timesteps.  This can be shortened
by right clicking on the Data Source (ada.nc) and using
the Select Times... menu to subset the times.  2) if
I subset the times, it doesn't seem to read the data.
I'm investigating that one now and will get back to
you when I have an answer.

So, the short answer is yes, it should work out of the box, 
but no, it doesn't.

I'll let you know when I've got this working.

Don Murray
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To:        Unidata Support <address@hidden>
Subject:   Re: 20031201: CF 1.0 compliant wind data displayable in IDV?
From:      Richard Signell <address@hidden>
Date:      Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:26:53 -0500
Organization: SACLANTCEN

Don,

Wow, what support!  I expected a "RTFM" response, but your
detailed explanation really helps newbies like me
to understand how to use IDV in the only way we
are likely to learn -- working with our own data.

I look forward to hearing what you find...

Thanks,
Rich