This project can be used to generate very small NetCDF files, which can be included in projects to run unit tests.

Tools

NetCDF files can be viewed using different tools. The most convenient ones are:

• Panoply
• Dive

NOTE: As of writing this documentation, CMAR have ceased to support the download link for Dive. If you really want to use this tool, you can still find it on the Web Archive.

NetCDF variable naming conventions

If you want to create your own NetCDF file, you may be interested in the following resources.

• NetCDF naming convention for long-name and standard-name
• Table of common NetCDF standard-name

Some metadata information is hidden in unrelated attributes. Just have a look at the EDAL library source code to see how standard_name and long_name can be used to infer metadata on the component variables of a vector variable.

Package: uk.ac.rdg.resc.edal.dataset.cdm
Class: CdmDatasetFactory
Source code:

private IdComponentEastNorth determineVectorIdAndComponent(String stdName) {
    if (stdName.contains("eastward_")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("eastward_", ""), true, true);
    } else if (stdName.contains("northward_")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("northward_", ""), false, true);
    } else if (stdName.matches("u-.*component")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("u-(.*)component", "$1"), true,
                false);
    } else if (stdName.matches("v-.*component")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("v-(.*)component", "$1"), false,
                false);
    } else if (stdName.matches(".*x_.*velocity")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("(.*)x_(.*velocity)", "$1$2"),
                true, false);
    } else if (stdName.matches(".*y_.*velocity")) {
        return new IdComponentEastNorth(stdName.replaceFirst("(.*)y_(.*velocity)", "$1$2"),
                false, false);
    }
    return null;
}