This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.
Parties who might be interested in ECMWF Reanalysis-15 data in netCDF format,The NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC), has been permitted to distribute the portion of the ERA-15 data set that we had converted to netCDF format. This includes both pressure-level and surface data, all on a 2.5 degree grid. It is only available through our web-based plotting and subsetting pages, due to ECMWF's requirement of a positive checkoff on their terms prior to the data being made available. Thus, after a subset is selected, a temporary netCDF file is constructed in a directory that is periodically purged, and that file is available for anonymous FTP. The documenting web page, with links to the plotting/subsetting page, is at: http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/cdc/data.ecmwf.reanalysis-15.html
There are two FAQ answers ("Why do I get a blank page when I request a subset?" and "What goes into the plot (from the subset and plot web page) when I request many levels and many timesteps?") that are relevant to obtaining data from us in this manner: http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/PublicData/faq.html