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<html> <head> <title>Software for Manipulating or Displaying NetCDF Data</title> <meta name="UIINDEX" content="0"> <meta name="BOOKMARK" content="NetCDF Utilities"> <meta name="AUTHOR" content="russ"> <meta name="KEYWORDS" content="netcdf, utilities, software, use"> <meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="This document provides references to software packages that may be used for manipulating or displaying netCDF data. We include information about both freely-available and licensed (commercial) software that can be used with netCDF data. "> </head> <body> <h1>Software for Manipulating or Displaying NetCDF Data</h1> <p> This document provides references to software packages that may be used for manipulating or displaying <a href="/software/netcdf/">netCDF</a> data. We include information about both freely-available and licensed (commercial) software that can be used with netCDF data. We rely on developers to help keep this list up-to-date. If you know of corrections or additions, please <a href="mailto:support@unidata.ucar.edu">send them to us</a>. Where practical, we would like to include WWW links to information about these packages in the HTML version of this document. </p> <p> Other useful guides to utilities that can handle netCDF data include ARM's list of <a href="http://science.arm.gov/%7ecflynn/ARM_Tested_Tools/" >ARM-tested netCDF data tools</a>, which includes some downloadable binaries and the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory <a href= "http://nomads.gfdl.noaa.gov/sandbox/products/vis/data/netcdf/GFDL_VG_NetCDF_Utils.html"> guide to netCDF utilities</a>. </p> <hr /> <h2><a href="#freely">Freely Available Software</a></h2> <ul> <li> <a href="#ANDX">ANDX (ARM NetCDF Data eXtract) and ANAX (ARM NetCDF ASCII eXtract)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ANTS" >ANTS (ARM NetCDF Tool Suite)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ARGOS">ARGOS (interActive thRee-dimensional Graphics ObServatory)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#CDAT">CDAT (Climate Data Analysis Tool)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#CDFconvert" >CDFconvert (Convert netCDF to RPN and GEMPAK Grids)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#cdfsync">cdfsync (network synchronization of netCDF files)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#CDO" >CDO (Climate Data Operators)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#CIDS Tools">CIDS Tools</a> </li> <li> <a href="#CSIRO-MATLAB">CSIRO MATLAB/netCDF interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#EPIC">EPIC</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ExcelUse" >Excel Use</a> </li> <li> <a href="#EzGet">EzGet</a> </li> <li> <a href="#FAN">FAN (File Array Notation)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#FERRET">FERRET</a> </li> <li> <a href="#fimex" >FIMEX (File Interpolation, Manipulation, and EXtraction)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#fwtools" >FWTools (GIS Binary Kit for Windows and Linux)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#GDAL" >GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#GDL" >GDL (GNU Data Language)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Gfdnavi" >Gfdnavi (Geophysical fluid data navigator)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#gliderscope" >Gliderscope</a> </li> <li> <a href="#GMT">GMT (Generic Mapping Tools)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Grace">Grace</a> </li> <li> <a href="#GrADS">GrADS (Grid Analysis and Display System)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Gri">Gri</a> </li> <li> <a href="#GXSM">GXSM - Gnome X Scanning Microscopy project</a> </li> <li> <a href="#HDF interface">HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#HDF-EOS" >HDF-EOS to netCDF converter</a> </li> <li> <a href="#HIPHOP">HIPHOP (Handy IDL-Program for HDF-Output Plotting)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Hyperslab OPerator Suite (HOPS)">HOPS (Hyperslab OPerator Suite)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#iCDF" >iCDF (imports chromatographic netCDF data into MATLAB)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#IDV" >IDV (Integrated Data Viewer)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Ingrid">Ingrid</a> </li> <li> <a href="#IntelArrayVisualizer" >Intel Array Visualizer</a> </li> <li> <a href="#IVE">IVE (Interactive Visualization Environment)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#JSON" >JSON format with the ncdump-json utility</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Java interface">Java interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#KST">Kst (2D plotting tool)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Labview-API" >Labview interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MBDyn">MBDyn (MultiBody Dynamics)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Max_diff_nc">Max_diff_nc</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MeteoExplorer" >MeteoExplorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MeteoInfo" >MeteoInfo</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MexEPS">MexEPS (MATLAB interface)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MEXNC">MEXNC and SNCTOOLS (a MATLAB interface)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Mirone">Mirone (Windows MATLAB-based display)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncBrowse">ncBrowse (netCDF File Browser)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#nccmp" >nccmp (netCDF compare)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncdx" >ncdx (netCDF for OpenDX)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncensemble" >ncensemble (command line utility to do ensemble statistics)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#NCL">NCL (NCAR Command Language)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#NCO">NCO (NetCDF Operators)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncregrid" >ncregrid</a> </li> <li> <a href="#nctoolbox" >nctoolbox (a MATLAB common data model interface)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncview">ncview</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ncvtk" >ncvtk</a> </li> <li> <a href="#netcdf_ninja" >NetCDF Ninja</a> </li> <li> <a href="#netcdf_tools" >netcdf tools</a> </li> <li> <a href="#netcdf4excel" >netcdf4excel (add-in for MS Excel)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#netcdf95" >NetCDF95 alternative Fortran API</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Objective-C" >Objective-C interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#NCMEX" >Octave interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Octave" >Octave interface (Barth)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#OPeNDAP">OPeNDAP (formerly DODS)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#OpenDX">OpenDX (formerly IBM Data Explorer)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Panoply" >Panoply</a> </li> <li> <a href="#PnetCDF" >PnetCDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Paraview" >Paraview and vtkCSCSNetCDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Perl" >Perl interfaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="#PolyPaint+">PolyPaint+</a> </li> <li> <a href="#pomegranate" >Pomegranate</a> </li> <li> <a href="#pupynere" >Pupynere (PUre PYthon NEtcdf REader)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#PyNGL" >PyNGL and PyNIO</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Python">Python interfaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="#QGIS" >QGIS (Quantum GIS)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#R">R interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Ruby" >Ruby interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#SDS" >Scientific DataSet (SDS) Library</a> </li> <li> <a href="#SIS">Apache Spatial Information System (SIS)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Tcl/Tk">Tcl/Tk interfaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Tcl-nap" >Tcl-nap (N-dimensional array processor)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#VB" >Visual Basic and VB.net</a> </li> <li> <a href="#VisAD">VisAD</a> </li> <li> <a href="#WCT">Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#WebWinds">WebWinds</a> </li> <li> <a href="#xdfv" >xdfv (A slick NetCDF/HDF4/HDF5 contents viewer with developers in mind)<A> </li> <li> <a href="#xray" >xray (Python N-D labelled arrays)</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Zebra">Zebra</a> </li> <li> <a href="#user">User-contributed software</a> </li> </ul> <hr /> <h2><a href="#commercial">Commercial or Licensed Packages</a></h2> <ul> <li> <a href="#ArcGIS">ArcGIS Pro - Space Time Pattern Mining Toolbox </li> <li> <a href="#Agrimetsoft"> AgriMetSoft - Netcdf-Extractor </li> <li> <a href="#ViewNcDap" >ASA ViewNcDap</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Avizo" >Avizo</a> </li> <li> <a href="#AVS">AVS</a> </li> <li> <a href="#BCS-UFI" >Barrodale UFI</a> </li> <li> <a href="#DioVISTA/Storm" >DioVISTA/Storm</a> </li> <li> <a href="#EnSight" >EnSight</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Environmental WorkBench">Environmental WorkBench</a> </li> <li> <a href="#ESRI" >ESRI</a> </li> <li> <a href="#FME" >FME</a> </li> <li> <a href="#HDF-Explorer" >HDF Explorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="#IDL">IDL Interface</a> </li> <li> <a href="#InterFormat">InterFormat</a> </li> <li> <a href="#IRIS Explorer Module">IRIS Explorer Module</a> </li> <li> <a href="#LeoNetCDF" >LeoNetCDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Mathematica" >Mathematica</a> </li> <li> <a href="#MATLAB">MATLAB</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Noesys">Noesys</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Origin" >Origin</a> </li> <li> <a href="#PPLUS">PPLUS</a> </li> <li> <a href="#PV-Wave">PV-Wave</a> </li> <li> <a href="#SlicerDicer">Slicer Dicer</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Surfer">Surfer</a> </li> <li> <a href="#vGeo" >vGeo</a> </li> <li> <a href="#VISAGE and Decimate">VISAGE and Decimate</a> </li> <li> <a href="#Voyager">Voyager</a> </li> </ul> <hr /> <p></p> <h1 id="freely">Freely Available Software</h1> <h2><a id="ANDX" name="ANDX">ANDX and ANAX</a></h2> <p> The ARM Program has developed <a href="http://engineering.arm.gov/~sbeus/andx-web/html/" >ANDX (ARM NetCDF Data eXtract)</a>, a command-line utility designed for routine examination and extraction of data from netCDF files. Data can be displayed graphically (line-plot, scatter-plot, overlay, color-intensity, etc.) or extracted as ASCII data. Whether displayed graphically or extracted as ASCII, results can be saved to disk or viewed on screen. </p> <p> <a href="http://science.arm.gov/~cflynn/ARM_Tested_Tools/" >ANAX (ARM NetCDF ASCII eXtract)</a> is a scaled-down version of ANDX -- it is designed to only extract ASCII data. All features of ANDX pertaining to non-graphic data extraction are included in ANAX. </p> <h2><a id="ANTS" name="ANTS">ANTS</a></h2> <p> The ARM Program has developed <a href="http://science.arm.gov/~cflynn/ANTS/" >ANTS (ARM NetCDF Tool Suite)</a>, a collection of netCDF tools and utilities providing various means of creating and modifying netCDF files. ANTS is based on nctools written by Chuck Denham. The utilities within nctools were modified to compile with version 3.5 of the netCDF library, the command syntax was modified for consistency with other tools, and changes were made to accommodate ARM standard netCDF. </p> <p> The original functions from nctools were intended mainly for the creation, definition, and copying of fundamental netCDF elements. ARM added others which focus on manipulation of data within existing netCDF files. Additional functions have special support for multi-dimensional data such as "slicing" cross sections from multi-dimensional variable data or joining lesser-dimensional fields to form multi-dimensional structures. Functions have been added to support execution of arithmetic and logical operations, bundling or splitting netCDF files, comparing the structure or content of files, and so on. </p> <p> Essentially every type of netCDF library function call is exercised in ANTS. In this way, this open-source collection of tools also represents a library of coding examples for fundamental netCDF tasks. See the <a href="http://science.arm.gov/~cflynn/ANTS/" >website</a> for more information. </p> <h2><a id="ARGOS" name="ARGOS">ARGOS</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://www.lapeth.ethz.ch/argos/index.html">ARGOS</a> (interActive thRee-dimensional Graphics ObServatory) is a new IDL-based interactive 3D visualization tool, developed by <a href="http://www.lapeth.ethz.ch/~david/index.html">David N. Bresch</a> and <a href="http://www.lapeth.ethz.ch/~mark/index.html">Mark A. Liniger</a> at the Institute for Atmospheric Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, Z&uumlrich. </p> <p> A highly optimized graphical user interface allows quick and elegant creation of even complex 3D graphics (volume rendering, isosurfaces, etc.), including Z-buffered overlays (with hidden lines), light and data shading, Xray images, 3D trajectories, animations and virtual flights around your data, all documented in a full on-line <a href="http://www.lapeth.ethz.ch/argos/argos_general.html">html-help</a>. The netCDF data format is preferred, but any other format can be read by providing an IDL (or FORTRAN or C or C++) interface. Some toolboxes (for atmospheric model output, trajectory display, radar data) have already been written, others might easily be added (in IDL, FORTRAN or C code). All interactive activities are tracked in a script, allowing quick reconstruction of anything done as well as running ARGOS in batch script mode. </p> <p> Information about <a href="http://www.lapeth.ethz.ch/argos/argos_copyright.html">copyright and licensing conditions</a> are available. For further information and installation, please E-mail to: bresch@atmos.umnw.ethz.ch </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="CDAT" name="CDAT">CDAT</a></h2> The <a href="http://cdat.sf.net">Climate Data Analysis Tool (CDAT)</a>, developed by the <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/">Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI)</a> at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides the capabilities needed to analyze model data, perform complex mathematical calculations, and graphically display the results. It provides the necessary tools to diagnose, validate, and intercompare large observational and global climate model data sets. <p> It includes the ability to ingest large climate datasets in netCDF, HDF, DRS, and GrADS/GRIB format; the Visualization and Computation System (VCS) module, visually displays and animates ingested or created data; and the Library of AMIP Data Transmission Standards (LATS) module outputs data in the machine-independent netCDF or GrADS/GRIB file formats. </p> <p> In addition, the Command Line Interface (CLI) module allows CDAT to receive argument and function input via the command line, and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) allows CDAT to receive argument and function input via a point-and-click environment. </p> <p> The software, which runs as a standalone process or within PCMDI's Visualization and Computation System (VCS), provides climate scientists with an easy and fast method to read different file formats, and to analyze and graphically display climate data in an integrated fashion. CDAT includes a set of pre-defined functions to allow the user to manipulate the data and send the output to a file which can be viewed as an image, or as a collection of images in an animation. The software has a gradual learning curve, allowing the novice user to quickly obtain useful results. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="CDFconvert" name="CDFconvert">CDFconvert</a></h2> <p> The <a href="http://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/rmctc/cdf_cvt/" >MRG CDFconvert package</a> provided by the Mesoscale Research Group, McGill University/SUNY Albany, is designed to address data conversion issues for gridded datasets stored under the <a href="http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/noaa_coop/coop_cdf_profile.html">COARDS</a> convention. CDFconvert converts regular Cylindrical Equidistant (Lat/Long) and Gaussian (Spherical) netCDF grids into either the Canadian <a href="http://www.cmc.ec.gc.ca/rpn/modcom/si/libraries/rmnlib/fstd/index.html" >RPN Standard File</a> or <a href="/software/gempak/index.html" >GEMPAK</a> file formats. MRG CDFconvert has the flexibility to handle netCDF files generated by a number of sources, including NCEP and ECMWF. User-definable conversion tables make the extension of the package to different datasets possible. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="cdfsync" name="cdfsync">cdfsync</a></h2> <p> Joe Sirott of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has developed cdfsync, a program that allows users to rapidly synchronize a set of netCDF files over a network. Fast synchronization times are achieved by only transmitting the differences between files. It is built on the Open Source <a href="http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/" >rsync</a> program, but contains a number of optimizations including: <ul> <li> Special handling of netCDF files for faster synchronization calculations </li> <li> Much faster updates of large numbers of small netCDF files </li> <li> In-place updates of large netCDF files </li> </ul> <p> The latest version should run on Linux variants and Solaris. </p> More information is available at the <a href="http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/software/cdfsync/">cdfsync website</a>. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="CDO" name="CDO">CDO (Climate Data Operators)</a></h2> <p> Uwe Schulzweida at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology has developed <a href="http://code.zmaw.de/projects/cdo" >CDO</a>, a collection of Operators to manipulate and analyze Climate Data files. Supported file formats include netCDF and GRIB. There are more than 350 operators available. The following table provides a brief overview of the main categories. </p> <ul> <li> File information (info, sinfo, diff, ...) </li> <li> File operations (copy, cat, merge, split*, ...) </li> <li> Selection (selcode, selvar, sellevel, seltimestep, ...) </li> <li> Missing values (setctomiss, setmisstoc, setrtomiss) </li> <li> Arithmetic (add, sub, mul, div, ...) </li> <li> Mathematical functions (sqrt, exp, log, sin, cos, ...) </li> <li> Comparison (eq, ne, le, lt, ge, gt, ...) </li> <li> Conditions (ifthen, ifnotthen, ifthenc, ifnotthenc) </li> <li> Field statistics (fldsum, fldavg, fldstd, fldmin, fldmax, ...) </li> <li> Vertical statistics (vertsum, vertavg, vertstd, vertmin, ...) </li> <li> Time range statistics (timavg, yearavg, monavg, dayavg, ...) </li> <li> Field interpolation (remapbil, remapcon, remapdis, ...) </li> <li> Vertical interpolation (ml2pl, ml2hl) </li> <li> Time interpolation (inttime, intyear) </li> </ul> <p> As an example of use of CDO, converting from GRIB to netCDF can be as simple as <pre> cdo -f nc copy file.grb file.nc </pre> or with relative time axis (for usage with GrADS) <pre> cdo -r -f nc copy file.grb file.nc </pre> or using ECMWF reanalysis on a reduced grid <pre> cdo -R -f nc copy file.grb file.nc </pre> </p> <p> More information is available on the <a href="http://code.zmaw.de/projects/cdo" >CDO homepage</a>. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="CIDS Tools" name="CIDS Tools">CIDS Tools</a></h2> The Center for Clouds Chemistry and Climate (<a href="http://www-c4.ucsd.edu/">C4</a>) Integrated Data Systems (<a href="http://www-c4.ucsd.edu/~cids/">CIDS</a>) group has developed several useful netCDF utilities: <ul> <li> cdf2idl: Writes an IDL script to read a NetCDF file. </li> <li> cdf2c: Writes C code to read a NetCDF file. </li> <li> cdf2fortran: Writes FORTRAN source code to read a NetCDF file. </li> <li> cdf2asc: Dumps NetCDF data to an ASCII file. </li> </ul> The source for these utilities can be downloaded from <a href="http://www-c4.ucsd.edu/~cids/software/visual.html">CIDS NetCDF Visualization Tools site</a>. <p></p> <h2><a id="CSIRO-MATLAB" name="CSIRO-MATLAB">CSIRO MATLAB/netCDF interface</a></h2> The <a href="http://www.marine.csiro.au/sw/matlab-netcdf.html">CSIRO MATLAB/netCDF interface</a> is now available from the <a href="http://www.marine.csiro.au">CSIRO Marine Laboratories</a>. <p> The CSIRO MATLAB/netCDF interface is run from within MATLAB and has a simple syntax. It has options for automatically handling missing values, scale factors, and permutation of hyperslabs. It is, however, limited to retrieving data from, and information about, existing netCDF files. </p> <p> The basis of the interface is a machine-dependent mex-file called mexcdf53. Rather than call the mex-file directly users are advised to employ both <a href="#NC4ML5">Chuck Denham's netCDF toolbox</a> and the CSIRO MATLAB/netCDF interface described here. For read-only access to existing netCDF data, the CSIRO interface has a simpler syntax than the netCDF Toolbox, but the latter may also be used to create and manipulate netCDF variables and datasets. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="EPIC" name="EPIC">EPIC</a></h2> NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (<a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/">PMEL</a>) has developed the <a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/">EPIC</a> software package for oceanographic data. EPIC provides graphical display and data field manipulation for multi-dimensional netCDF files (up to 4 dimensions). PMEL has been using this software on Unix and VMS several years. At present, they have: <p></p> <ul> <li> a data file I/O library ( <a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/eps-manual/epslib_toc.html">epslib</a>, which is layered on top of the netCDF library). </li> <li> epslib allows transparent access to multiple data file formats </li> <li> a <a href="http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/software/mexeps.htm">MATLAB MexEPS interface</a> for using any supported EPIC file with MATLAB </li> <li> <a href="http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/software/ep_programs.htm">suite of EPIC programs</a> for graphics and analysis of hydrographic profile data and time series data. </li> </ul> This software was developed on Sun/Unix and is also supported for DEC/Ultrix and VAX/VMS as a system for data management, display and analysis system for observational oceanographic time series and hydrographic data. The EPIC software includes over 50 programs for oceanographic display and analysis, as well as utilities for putting in-situ or observational data on-line (with on-the-fly graphics and data download) on the WWW. <p> The developers are interested in coordinating with others who may be developing oceanographic software for use with netCDF files. The EPIC software is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.noaapmel.gov in the epic/ and /eps directories. To obtain the EPIC software, please see Web pages at <a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/download/index.html">http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/download/index.html</a>. For information about EPIC, please see the Web pages at <a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/index.html">http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/epic/index.html</a>. Contact epic@pmel.noaa.gov, or Nancy Soreide, nns@noaapmel.gov, for more information. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="ExcelUse" name="ExcelUse">Excel Use</a></h2> <p> Several packages are available for accessing netCDF data from Microsoft Excel, including the <a href="#netcdf4excel" >netcdf4excel</a> add-in for Excel, and a <a href="#SDS" >Scientific Dataset (SDS) Library</a> that supports a DataSetEditor add-in for Excel to view and modify various forms of data, including netCDF. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="EzGet" name="EzGet">EzGet</a></h2> A FORTRAN library called <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ktaylor/ezget/ezget.html">EzGet</a> has been developed at <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/PCMDI.html">PCMDI</a> to facilitate retrieval of modeled and observed climate data stored in popular formats including <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/drach/DRS.html">DRS</a>, <a href="/software/netcdf/">netCDF</a>, <a href="http://grads.iges.org/grads">GrADS</a>, and, if a control file is supplied, <a href="ftp://nic.fb4.noaa.gov/pub/nws/nmc/docs/gribed1/">GRIB</a>. You can specify how the data should be structured and whether it should undergo a grid transformation before you receive it, even when you know little about the original structure of the stored data (e.g., its original dimension order, grid, and domain). <p> The EzGet library comprises a set of subroutines that can be linked to any FORTRAN program. EzGet reads files through the <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/drach/cdunif.html">cdunif</a> interface, but use of EzGet does not require familiarity with cdunif. The main advantages of using EzGet instead of the lower level cdunif library include: </p> <ul> <li> Substantial error trapping capabilities and detailed error messages </li> <li> Versatile capability of conveniently selecting data from specified regions (e.g., oceans, North America, all land areas north of 45 degrees latitude, etc.) </li> <li> Ability to map data to a new grid at the time it is retrieved by EzGet </li> <li> Automatic creation of ``weights'' for use in subsequent averaging or masking of data </li> <li> Increased control in specifying the domain of the data to be retrieved. </li> </ul> <p> For more information about EzGet, including instructions for downloading the documentation or software, see the EzGet home page at <a href="http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ktaylor/ezget/ezget.html">http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ktaylor/ezget/ezget.html</a>. For questions or comments on EzGet, contact Karl Taylor (taylor13@llnl.gov). </p> <h2><a id="FAN" name="FAN">FAN</a></h2> <a href="/software/netcdf/fan_utils.html">FAN (File Array Notation)</a> is Harvey Davies' package for extracting and manipulating array data from netCDF files. The package includes the three utilities nc2text, text2nc, and ncrob for printing selected data from netCDF arrays, copying ASCII data into netCDF arrays, and performing various operations (sum, mean, max, min, product, ...) on netCDF arrays. A library (fanlib) is also included that supports the use of FAN from C programs. The package is available via anonymous FTP from <a href="ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/fan.tar.Z">ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/fan.tar.Z</a>. Questions and comments may be sent to Harvey Davies, harvey.davies@csiro.au. <p></p> <h2><a id="FERRET" name="FERRET">FERRET</a></h2> <a href="http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/Ferret/">FERRET</a> is an interactive computer visualization and analysis environment designed to meet the needs of oceanographers and meteorologists analyzing large and complex gridded data sets. It is available by anonymous ftp from abyss.pmel.noaa.gov for a number of computer systems: SUN (Solaris and SUNOS), DECstation (Ultrix and OSF/1), SGI, VAX/VMS and Macintosh (limited support), and IBM RS-6000 (soon to be released). <p> FERRET offers a Mathematica-like approach to analysis; new variables may be defined interactively as mathematical expressions involving data set variables. Calculations may be applied over arbitrarily shaped regions. Fully documented graphics are produced with a single command. Graphics styles included line plots, scatter plots, contour plots, color-filled contour plots, vector plots, wire frame plots, etc. Detailed controls over plot characteristics, page layout and overlays are provided. NetCDF is supported as both an input and an output format. </p> <p> Many excellent software packages have been developed recently for scientific visualization. The features that make FERRET distinctive among these packages are Mathematica-like flexibility, geophysical formatting (latitude/longitude/date), "intelligent" connection to its database, special memory management for very large calculations, and symmetrical processing in 4 dimensions. Contact Steve Hankin, hankin@noaapmel.gov, for more information. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="fimex" name="fimex" >Fimex</a></h2> <p> Heiko Klein (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) has developed the <a href="https://wiki.met.no/fimex/start" >fimex</a> (File Interpolation, Manipulation, and EXtraction) C++ library for gridded geospatial data. It converts between several data formats (currently netCDF, NcML, GRIB1 or GRIB2, and felt). Fimex also enables you to change the projection and interpolation of scalar and vector grids, to subset the gridded data, and to extract only parts of the files. Fimex supports a growing list of other <a href="https://wiki.met.no/fimex/features" >features</a>, including support for most NcML features and for netCDF-4 compression. </p> <p> For simple usage, Fimex also comes with the command line program fimex. </p> <p> Documentation and downloads are available from the <a href="http://wiki.met.no/fimex/" >fimex web site</a>. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="fwtools" name="fwtools">FWTools (GIS Binary Kit for Windows and Linux)</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://fwtools.maptools.org/" >FWTools</a> is Frank Warmerdam's set of Open Source GIS binaries for Windows (win32) and Linux (x86 32bit) systems. The kits are intended to be easy for end users to install and get going with, and include OpenEV, GDAL, MapServer, PROJ.4 and OGDI as well as some supporting components. FWTools aims to track the latest development versions of the packages included as opposed to official releases, "to give folks a chance to use the <em>latest and greatest</em>". </p> <h2><a id="GDAL" name="GDAL">GDAL</a></h2> <p> Frank Warmerdam's <a href="http://www.remotesensing.org/gdal/index.html" >GDAL</a> is a translator library for raster geospatial data formats that is released under an X/MIT style Open Source license. As a library, it presents a <a href="http://www.remotesensing.org/gdal/gdal_datamodel.html"> single abstract data model</a> to the calling application for all supported formats. The related <a href="http://www.remotesensing.org/gdal/ogr">OGR</a> library (which lives within the GDAL source tree) provides a similar capability for simple features vector data. </p> <p> GDAL is in active use in several projects, and includes roughly 40 format drivers, including a translator for netCDF (read/write). Other translators include GeoTIFF (read/write), Erdas Imagine (read/write), ESRI .BIL (read), .aux labeled raw (read/write), DTED (read), SDTS DEM (read), CEOS (read), JPEG (read/write), PNG (read/write), Geosoft GXF (read) and Arc/Info Binary Grid (read). A full list is available in <a href="http://www.remotesensing.org/gdal/formats_list.html">Supported Formats</a>. </p> <p> GDAL has recently included support for the netCDF-4 enhanced data model and netCDF-4 format, as well as improved support for recent additions to the CF conventions. </p> <p> As an example of the use of GDAL, converting an ArcInfo ASCII grid to netCDF (GMT conventions) as easy as: <pre> gdal_translate arc_ascii.grd -of GMT gmt_grid.nc </pre> </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="GDL" name="GDL">GDL (GNU Data Language)</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://gnudatalanguage.sourceforge.net/" >GDL</a> is a free implementation of most of the programming language supported by <a href="#IDL" >IDL</a> (Interactive Data Language). GDL supports the netCDF-3 API. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="Gfdnavi" name="Gfdnavi">Gfdnavi (Geophysical fluid data navigator)</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://www.gfd-dennou.org/arch/davis/gfdnavi/index.en.htm" >Gfdnavi</a> is a web-based tool to archive, share, distribute, analyze, and visualize geophysical fluid data and knowledge. The software is under development by members of the GFD Dennou Club, including T. Horinouchi (RISH, Kyoto U.), S. Nishizawa (RIMS, Kyoto U.), and colleagues. Gfdnavi uses a metadata database for managing and analyzing data and visualizations. It also permits publishing data for web access and will soon support access to data on other Gfdnavi servers. Web service APIs are now under development. A presentation <a href="http://www.gfd-dennou.org/arch/davis/gfdnavi/presen/2007-03-05_GfdnaviIntro.En/pub/" >Introducing Gfdnavi</a> describes the architecture and shows examples of use. </p> <p> Gfdnavi is dependent on two technologies: <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.com/" >Ruby on Rails</a>, a framework for web applications, and </li> <li> <a href="http://ruby.gfd-dennou.org/" >the Dennou Ruby Project</a>, a collection of tools for geophysical data. These tools include <a href="http://ruby.gfd-dennou.org/products/gphys/" >GPhys</a> software to handle GRIB, GrADS, and netCDF data uniformly. </li> </ul> </p> <p> As an example of this technology, Takuji Kubota has established <a href="http://www.gsmap.aero.osakafu-u.ac.jp/gfdnavi/" >a Gfdnavi server</a> for the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (<a href="http://www.radar.aero.osakafu-u.ac.jp/~gsmap/index_english.html" >GSMaP</a>) project. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="gliderscope" name="gliderscope">Gliderccope</a></h2> <p> Dr L. Mun Woo <mun.woo@uwa.edu.au> at ANFOG (Australian National Facility for Ocean Gliders) has developed <a href="https://imos.org.au/gliderscope">Gliderscope</a>. Gliderscope is an IMOS (Integrated Marine Observing System) oceanographic software package allowing users quick easy visualisation of ocean glider data, via a convenient graphical user interface. Originally developed for use with ANFOG NetCDF data, it has now been expanded to handle NetCDF data files from IOOS (U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System) and EGO (Everyone's Gliding Observatories) also. </p><p> Being interactive, Gliderscope speaks to users via an onscreen dialogue box, helping the user decide what to do. With a few simple clicks of the mouse, users can choose and extract segments of data, filter out the bad data, perform calculations (e.g. for water density, sound velocity in water, light attenuation, 1% photic depth) and apply a variety of high level graphical data visualisation techniques to produce elegant three/four-dimensional plots of water properties, interpolated contour charts, vertical profile plots, water properties comparison charts etc. Additionally, users can also export their data to text or NetCDF files for easy access in other applications. Gliderscope is available on Windows and Macintosh platforms, as standalone executable software as well as an App for use within MATLAB. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="GMT" name="GMT">GMT</a></h2> <p> <a href="http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/">GMT</a> (Generic Mapping Tools) is an open source collection of about 60 tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets (including filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, etc.) and producing Encapsulated PostScript File (EPS) illustrations ranging from simple x-y plots via contour maps to artificially illuminated surfaces and 3-D perspective views. GMT supports 30 map projections and transformations and comes with support data such as coastlines, rivers, and political boundaries. GMT is developed and maintained by Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith with help from a global set of volunteers, and is supported by the National Science Foundation. It is released under the GNU General Public License. </p> <p> The package can access COARDS-compliant netCDF grids as well as ASCII, native binary, or user-defined formats. The GMT package is available via anonymous ftp from several servers; see <a href="http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu" >gmt.soest.hawaii.edu</a> for installation information. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="Grace" name="Grace">Grace</a></h2> <a href="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/">Grace</a> is a tool to make two-dimensional plots of scientific data, including 1D netCDF variables. It runs under the X Window System and OSF Motif (recent versions of LessTif are, by and large, fine, too). Grace runs on practically any version of Unix. As well, it has been successfully ported to VMS, OS/2 and Win9*/NT (some functionality may be missing, though). Grace is a descendant of ACE/gr. <p> A few features of Grace are: </p> <ul> <li> User defined scaling, tick marks, labels, symbols, line styles, colors. </li> <li> Batch mode for unattended plotting. </li> <li> Read and write parameters used during a session. </li> <li> Regressions, splines, running averages, DFT/FFT, cross/auto-correlation, ... </li> <li> Support for dynamic module loading. </li> <li> Hardcopy support for PostScript, PDF, GIF, and PNM formats. </li> <li> Device-independent Type1 font rastering. </li> <li> Ability to read or write netCDF data. </li> </ul> <p></p> <h2><a id="GrADS" name="GrADS">GrADS</a></h2> <a href="http://grads.iges.org/grads/grads.html">GrADS</a> (Grid Analysis and Display System) is an interactive desktop tool from <a href="http://grads.iges.org/cola.html">COLA/IGES</a> that is currently in use worldwide for the analysis and display of earth science data. GrADS is implemented on all commonly available UNIX workstations, Apple Macintosh, and DOS or Linux based PCs, and is freely available via anonymous ftp. GrADS provides an integrated environment for access, manipulation, and display of earth science data in several forms, including GRIB and netCDF. For more information, see the <a href="http://grads.iges.org/grads/gadoc/users.html" >GrADS User's Guide</a>. <p></p> <h2><a id="Gri" name="Gri">Gri</a></h2> Gri is an extensible plotting language for producing scientific graphs, such as x-y plots, contour plots, and image plots. Dan Kelley of Dalhousie University is the author of Gri, which can read data from netCDF files as well as ASCII and native binary data. For more information on Gri, see the URL <a href="http://gri.sourceforge.net/">http://gri.sourceforge.net/</a>. <p></p> <h2><a id="GXSM" name="GXSM">GXSM</a></h2> The GXSM is the Gnome X Scanning Microscopy project, it is a bit more than just a piece of software (the GXSM itself), there is full hardware support for DSP cards including open source DSP software and a growing set of SPM related electronics. For more information, see <a href="http://gxsm.sourceforge.net/">http://gxsm.sourceforge.net/</a>. <p></p> <h2><a id="HDF interface" name="HDF interface">HDF interface</a></h2> The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has added the netCDF interface to their <a href="http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/">Hierarchical Data Format (HDF)</a> software. HDF is an extensible data format for self-describing files. A substantial set of applications and utilities based on HDF is available; these support raster-image manipulation and display and browsing through multidimensional scientific data. An implementation is now available that provides the netCDF interface to HDF. With this software, it is possible to use the netCDF calling interface to place data into an HDF file. The netCDF calling interface has not changed and netCDF files stored in XDR format are readable, so existing programs and data will still be usable (although programs will need to be relinked to the new library). There is currently no support for the mixing of HDF and netCDF structures. For example, a raster image can exist in the same file as a netCDF object, but you have to use the Raster Image interface to read the image and the netCDF interface to read the netCDF object. The other HDF interfaces are currently being modified to allow multi-file access, closer integration with the netCDF interface will probably be delayed until the end of that project. <p> Eventually, it will be possible to integrate netCDF objects with the rest of the HDF tool suite. Such an integration will then allow tools written for netCDF and tools written for HDF to both interact intelligently with the new data files. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="HDF-EOS" name="HDF-EOS">HDF-EOS to netCDF converter</a></h2> <p> The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (<a href="http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov" >GES DISC</a>) has developed an on-the-fly HDF-EOS to netCDF/CF converter for the following products, making them easier to use in the <a href="#IDV" >Unidata IDV</a> and <a href="http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/software/v/" >McIDAS-V</a>: <ul> <li> AIRS Level 2 (scene) profiles of moisture, air temperature and trace gases </li> <li> AIRS Level 3 (global grid) profiles of moisture, air temperature and trace gases </li> <li> OMI UV-B at the surface </li> <li> TOMS ozone and aerosols </li> </ul> <p> <a href="http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/services/NetCDFConversionforIDVandMcIDAS-V.shtml" >Instructions</a> are available for searching and converting these data. More information on AIRS products is available at <a href="http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/index.html" >http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/index.html</a>. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="HIPHOP" name="HIPHOP">HIPHOP</a></h2> <a href="http://www.knmi.nl/onderzk/atmosam/English/Service/hiphop/hiphop.html">HIPHOP</a>, developed by Dominik Brunner, is a widget based IDL application that largely facilitates the visualization and analysis of 2D, 3D, and 4D atmospheric science data, in particular atmospheric tracer distributions and meteorological fields. <p> Graphical output of (atmospheric model) data can be quickly generated in a large number of different ways, including horizontal maps at selected model or pressure levels, vertical north-south, east-west, or slant cross-sections (including zonal averages), time slices, animations, etc. It also allows mathematical operations on the existing fields to generate new fields for further analysis, and it can be run as a batch application. </p> <p> The program handles data in netCDF, HDF and GRIB format. Interfaces to other data formats (e.g. ASCII and binary data) can be added easily. </p> <p> Beginning with Version 4.0, it also supports the ability to overlay meteorological fields on a number of different satellite images, and to draw air parcel trajectories. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="Hyperslab OPerator Suite (HOPS)" name="Hyperslab OPerator Suite (HOPS)">Hyperslab OPerator Suite (HOPS)</a></h2> Hyperslab OPerator Suite (<a href="http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/gds/svn/hyperslab.html">HOPS</a>), developed by R. Saravanan at NCAR, is a bilingual, multi-platform software package for processing data in netCDF files conforming to the NCAR-CCM format or the NCAR Ocean Model format. HOPS is implemented in <a href="#IDL">IDL</a>, the widely-used commercial interpreted language, and also in <a href="ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/Yorick/">Yorick</a>, a public-domain interpreted language that is freely available from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The IDL version of HOPS should run on any platform supported by IDL. The Yorick version too runs on most common UNIX platforms, such as Sun, SGI, Cray, and LINUX computers. <p> HOPS is not a monolithic program, but a suite of operators that act on data units called "hyperslabs". The design of HOPS is object-oriented, rather than procedure-oriented; the operators treat the numeric data and the associated meta-data (like coordinate information) as a single object. </p> <p> Note that HOPS is not a general purpose netCDF utility and works only for the NCAR CSM netCDF formats. For more information, check the <a href="http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/gds/svn/hyperslab.html">HOPS home page</a>. </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="iCDF" name="iCDF">iCDF (imports chromatographic netCDF data into MATLAB)</a></h2> <p> Klavs M. Sørensen, Thomas Skov and Rasmus Bro (Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen) have developed <a href="http://www.models.life.ku.dk/source/iCDF/index.asp" >iCDF</a>, a free and documented toolbox for importing chromatographic data in the netCDF-based format that most manufacturers of chromatographic software support. </p> <p> The iCDF software is currently for XC-MS data (X: GC, LC, HPLC), but soon it will be able to import data using other detectors as well. It can be used to open netCDF files from many different instruments (e.g. Agilent, Bruker) and many chromatographic software packages (e.g. ChemStation). </p> <p> For more information, see the paper <blockquote> Skov T and Bro R. (2008) Solving fundamental problems in chromatographic analysis Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 390 (1): 281-285. </blockquote> </p> <p></p> <h2><a id="IDV" name="IDV">IDV (Integrated Data Viewer)</a></h2> <p> Unidata's <a href="/software/idv/" >Integrated Data Viewer (IDV)</a> is a Java application (for Java 1.4 or later) that can be used to display a variety of netCDF files, particularly well formatted, geolocated datasets. Features include: <ul> <li> Access to local and remote netCDF files and a variety of <a href="/software/idv/docs/userguide/data/DataSources.html" >other data formats</a> </li> <li> Slicing and probing of multidimensional data </li> <li> Support for netCDF conventions (CF, COARDS, NUWG, AWIPS) </li> <li> InstallAnywhere installers for easy download and installation </li> <li> Save display state to a bundle for easy recreat