Re: [Fwd: Re: Fwd: netCDF and IDV for the Deepwater Horizon]

Hi Ansley:

The followwing changes to your file would make it "CF 1.5 compliant" :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<netcdf xmlns="http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/namespaces/netcdf/ncml-2.2"; 
location="E:/work/deepwater/drifter_example.nc">
<attribute name="Conventions" value="CF-1.5" />
<attribute name="CF:featureType" value="trajectory" />
<variable name="LON">
<attribute name="units" value="degrees_east" />
</variable>
<variable name="LAT">
<attribute name="units" value="degrees_north" />
</variable>
<variable name="SST">
<attribute name="coordinates" value="LAT LON TAXIS" />
</variable>
<variable name="SPEED">
<attribute name="coordinates" value="LAT LON TAXIS" />
</variable>
<variable name="DIR">
<attribute name="coordinates" value="LAT LON TAXIS" />
</variable>
</netcdf>

On 5/25/2010 5:08 PM, Ansley Manke wrote:
> hi
> Adding CC to Ben Domenico-
>
> Hi John, CJ,
>
>
> On 5/25/2010 1:45 PM, CJ Beegle-Krause wrote:
> > Hello Sam and Ansley,
> >
> > Below please find a note from John Caron at Unidata and a request to
> > see how well their discrete sampling data proposal will work for us.
> > Please take a look to see if this will work for us.  Ansley, could you
> > make a test file and send it back to John, and cc me an Ben?  My read
> > is that he would like a "trajectory" which would be a glider path",
> > not what we think of as a trajectory forecast.
> >
> > Ansley, Rutgers glider data is here I thinkl.
> > http://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/deepwater/
> >
> > Sam, if Ansley needs connection to get data to use for an example,
> > could you help her?  If you have comments on the standard, please send
> > to Ansley.  I'll take a look shortly.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > CJ
> We're still working on getting another example or two of data from
> gliders but here is a netCDF file with a surface trajectory of drifter
> measurements. I used Ferret to read data from a spreadsheet-style ascii
> file and write out this netCDF file.
>
> I've followed the "trajectory" style, as in 9.4.2, Single Trajectory in
> the CF proposal.  A glider would be similar but would have Z as well as
> lon and lat. The whole file is attached, but here's the ncdump header.
>
>
> > ncdump -h drifter_example.nc
> netcdf drifter_example {
> dimensions:
>          TAXIS = UNLIMITED ; // (162 currently)
>          bnds = 2 ;
>          STRING1_3 = 3 ;
> variables:
>          double TAXIS(TAXIS) ;
>                  TAXIS:units = "DAYS since 1990-01-01 00:00:00" ;
>                  TAXIS:axis = "T" ;
>                  TAXIS:bounds = "TAXIS_bnds" ;
>                  TAXIS:time_origin = "1-JAN-1990" ;
>          double TAXIS_bnds(TAXIS, bnds) ;
>          float BUOY(TAXIS) ;
>                  BUOY:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  BUOY:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  BUOY:long_name = "Buoy Number" ;
>                  BUOY:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          float LON(TAXIS) ;
>                  LON:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  LON:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  LON:long_name = "Longitude" ;
>                  LON:units = "Degrees E" ;
>                  LON:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          float LAT(TAXIS) ;
>                  LAT:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  LAT:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  LAT:long_name = "Latitude" ;
>                  LAT:units = "Degrees N" ;
>                  LAT:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          float SST(TAXIS) ;
>                  SST:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  SST:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  SST:long_name = "Sea Surface Temperature" ;
>                  SST:units = "Deg C" ;
>                  SST:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          float DIR(TAXIS) ;
>                  DIR:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  DIR:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  DIR:long_name = "Direction" ;
>                  DIR:units = "Deg" ;
>                  DIR:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          float SPEED(TAXIS) ;
>                  SPEED:missing_value = -1.e+34f ;
>                  SPEED:_FillValue = -1.e+34f ;
>                  SPEED:long_name = "Speed" ;
>                  SPEED:units = "m/s" ;
>                  SPEED:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>          char SOURCE(TAXIS, STRING1_3) ;
>                  SOURCE:long_name = "Source" ;
>                  SOURCE:history = "From drifter_example.dat" ;
>
> // global attributes:
>                  :history = "FERRET V6.61   25-May-10" ;
>                  :Conventions = "CF-1.0" ;
>                  :title = "drifter example from Coast Guard SLDMB data,
> Gulf of Mexico 5/2010" ;
> }
>
>
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject:     Re: Fwd: netCDF and IDV for the Deepwater Horizon
> > Date:     Tue, 25 May 2010 14:10:07 -0600
> > From:     John Caron <address@hidden>
> > To:     address@hidden
> > CC:     Ben Domenico <address@hidden>, Unidata netCDF Java
> > Support <address@hidden>
> > References: <address@hidden>
> > <address@hidden>
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi CJ:
> >
> > We are recommending that new netCDF data follow the CF "discrete
> > sampling" data proposal at:
> >
> >  https://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/wiki/PointObservationConventions
> > <https://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/wiki/PointObservationConventions>
> >
> > Unfortunately, it is not a final standard yet, and has changed a bit
> > in the last week. However, Im hopeful its very close. See section 9.4
> > for trajectory data. Any comments on that proposal would be
> > appreciated, in particular if it meets your needs.  If you'd like to
> > try putting it into that format and sending us a sample file, we may
> > be able to the process .
> >
> > You can use any software to write netCDF, Java is not needed. The IDV
> > will be able to read that format (not the current release, but soon
> > after).
> >
> > Regards,
> > John
> >
> > > Hello Ben,
> > >
> > > I've been talking with Tiffany Vance and Steve Hankin about our data
> > > and visualization needs for the incident.  I'm one of the trajectory
> > > modelers with NOAA Office of Response and Restoration / Emergency
> > > Response Division, and working on making new kinds of displays for
> > > information.  We have the lead for modeling for the incident, and are
> > > putting out the daily trajectory forecasts.  We are moving quickly to
> > > 3D forecasting. I have questions along two lines.
> > >
> > > netCDF - we are pushing for using netCDF for all the information
> > > management for the modeling team.  The two data streams are to move
> > > things into GIS for the spatial folks, and netCDF for those of us
> > > doing modeling and obs analysis.  We have some issues that Unidata
> > > may be able to help with.  For example,
> > > -we use the C libraries that always seem to be behind the java
> > > libraries in development
> > > -are their standards now for trajectory, cruise profiles, glider
> > > data, etc?  We will have a large number of observational platforms,
> > > and want to be able to leverage all the data in modeling and
> > > forecasting.
> > > Visualization - IDV.  I'm an IDV novice, but a big fan.  Working on
> > > the HabitatSpace project with Tiffany, we ran into some little bugs
> > > that caused headaches.  In looking at how to do 4D visualization for
> > > obs and models, I'd really like to use IDV.  Is there help available
> > > to make sure that it works for what we need?
> > >
> > > If you need more background on our needs, or what we do, let me know.
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > CJ