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[netCDF #SJY-200306]: Support understanding COARDS data
- Subject: [netCDF #SJY-200306]: Support understanding COARDS data
- Date: Mon, 09 May 2016 12:41:08 -0600
Hello Tony,
Thanks for the interesting question! I suspect your suspicion is right
regarding the Mercator projection. Calculating the longitudinal index via the
slope/intercept formula works because the longitudinal data are uniformly
spaced. Because the latitudinal values are Mercator spaced, you cannot use the
same formula. Unfortunately, I am unable to tell you what formula you *should*
use. You may need to find an alternate dataset which contains uniform
projections, or create a new dataset in which you've applied an
inverse-mercator projection to the latitudes contained within this file.
I feel silly supplying you with a link to the Mercator page on Wikipedia, as
I'm sure you have already looked at it; however, since I'm am going to refer
you to it, I include the link for completion.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection
I suspect the answer to your question may be found in the mathematics on this
page, but again, perhaps the simpler answer would be to locate a different
dataset which contains uniform latitude and longitudes.
I'm sorry I can't provide a more directly useful answer, but hopefully this
information will be of some use to you.
Have a good day,
-Ward
> Hi,
>
> I downloaded smith_sandwell_topo_v8_2.nc from
> https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/examples/files.html, and am
> trying to understand the data it contains. I've been able to read the
> values, and have come up with a fairly complete map of the data within.
> However, my calculations to determine the latitude are yielding
> apparently incorrect values, with latitude increasingly wrong as I
> approach the poles. This sounds like something to do with projetion
> issues, but I'm not sure where my math is wrong? Can you help?
>
> As a sample data point, I'm using the southernmost point of Africa.
> Google Maps reports this to be -34.837352,19.980005. The same point
> within the smith_sandwell file appears to be at 591,2060.
>
> I've read the following values from the smith_sandwell file:
> longitude = 10800 ;
> latitude = 6336 ;
> longitude:long_name = "Uniformly spaced longitudes (.01667E -> 359.9833E)
> latitude:long_name = "Mercator spaced latitudes (72.0009S -> 72.0009N)" ;
>
> To calculate that point's longitude, I'm running the following calculation:
> 591/10800 * (359.9833 - .01667) + .01667 = 19.714843919
>
> This seems more or less correct. I'm using the same calculation to
> determine latitude, and coming up with:
> 2060/6336 * (72.0009 - -72.0009) + -72.0009 = -25.182132955
>
> This is wrong - I assume I'm not accounting for the Mercator projection
> somehow, but I'm not sure how. Can you tell me what I need to do to
> calculate the correct latitude given the y axis origin, range and
> point's y location? Thanks.
>
> Tony Howard
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I downloaded smith_sandwell_topo_v8_2.nc from
> https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/examples/files.html, and am
> trying to understand the data it contains. I've been able to read the
> values, and have come up with a fairly complete map of the data within.
> However, my calculations to determine the latitude are yielding
> apparently incorrect values, with latitude increasingly wrong as I
> approach the poles. This sounds like something to do with projetion
> issues, but I'm not sure where my math is wrong? Can you help?
>
> As a sample data point, I'm using the southernmost point of Africa.
> Google Maps reports this to be -34.837352,19.980005. The same point
> within the smith_sandwell file appears to be at 591,2060.
>
> I've read the following values from the smith_sandwell file:
> longitude = 10800 ;
> latitude = 6336 ;
> longitude:long_name = "Uniformly spaced longitudes (.01667E -> 359.9833E)
> latitude:long_name = "Mercator spaced latitudes (72.0009S -> 72.0009N)" ;
>
> To calculate that point's longitude, I'm running the following calculation:
> 591/10800 * (359.9833 - .01667) + .01667 = 19.714843919
>
> This seems more or less correct. I'm using the same calculation to
> determine latitude, and coming up with:
> 2060/6336 * (72.0009 - -72.0009) + -72.0009 = -25.182132955
>
> This is wrong - I assume I'm not accounting for the Mercator projection
> somehow, but I'm not sure how. Can you tell me what I need to do to
> calculate the correct latitude given the y axis origin, range and
> point's y location? Thanks.
>
> Tony Howard
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I downloaded smith_sandwell_topo_v8_2.nc from
> https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/examples/files.html, and am
> trying to understand the data it contains. I've been able to read the
> values, and have come up with a fairly complete map of the data within.
> However, my calculations to determine the latitude are yielding
> apparently incorrect values, with latitude increasingly wrong as I
> approach the poles. This sounds like something to do with projetion
> issues, but I'm not sure where my math is wrong? Can you help?
>
> As a sample data point, I'm using the southernmost point of Africa.
> Google Maps reports this to be -34.837352,19.980005. The same point
> within the smith_sandwell file appears to be at 591,2060.
>
> I've read the following values from the smith_sandwell file:
> longitude = 10800 ;
> latitude = 6336 ;
> longitude:long_name = "Uniformly spaced longitudes (.01667E -> 359.9833E)
> latitude:long_name = "Mercator spaced latitudes (72.0009S -> 72.0009N)" ;
>
> To calculate that point's longitude, I'm running the following calculation:
> 591/10800 * (359.9833 - .01667) + .01667 = 19.714843919
>
> This seems more or less correct. I'm using the same calculation to
> determine latitude, and coming up with:
> 2060/6336 * (72.0009 - -72.0009) + -72.0009 = -25.182132955
>
> This is wrong - I assume I'm not accounting for the Mercator projection
> somehow, but I'm not sure how. Can you tell me what I need to do to
> calculate the correct latitude given the y axis origin, range and
> point's y location? Thanks.
>
> Tony Howard
>
>
Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: SJY-200306
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed