netcdf question

[Haibin Li]

Post for a friend:
The problem is related to "compression by gathering" method in the
created netcdf data. This is the header info of the data file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------netcdf
Prate {
dimensions:
        x = 76576 ;
        tstep = UNLIMITED ; // (607 currently)
variables:
        float lon(x) ;
                lon:long_name = "Longitude" ;
                lon:units = "degrees_east" ;
        float lat(x) ;
                lat:long_name = "Latitude" ;
                lat:units = "degrees_north" ;
        double time(tstep) ;
                time:long_name = "time" ;
                time:units = "months since 1950-01" ;
                time:calendar = "gregorian" ;
        int timestep(tstep) ;
                timestep:long_name = "timesteps" ;
                timestep:units = "timesteps since 1950-01" ;
                timestep:tstep_month = 1 ;
        float PRATE(tstep, x) ;
                PRATE:long_name = "Total Precipitation Rate (Rainfall
+ Snowfall)" ;
                PRATE:units = "kg/m2/s" ;

// global attributes:
                :history = "Fri Oct 26 11:47:50 2001: ncrename -v
PRATE,Prate Prate.monthly.1950-2000.nc\n",
                        "Fri Oct 26 11:33:22 2001: ncatted -O -a
var_nm,PRATE,m,c,Prate Prate.monthly.1950-2000.nc\n",
                        "VIC 50-year Retrospective Simulation" ;
                :comment = "First Run -- 1Jan1950 - 31Jul2000" ;
                :SignConvention = "Traditional" ;
}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems GrADS can't recognize this type of compression directly. When
I used NCO to extract portion of the file, it also fails to recognize
the dimensions. Does anyone have experiences on this? Or is it
possible to uncompress the file to another netcdf  file so that GrADS
can recognize?
Thanks.



Yours,
Haibin
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Haibin Li
Department of Environmental Sciences
Rutgers University
14 College Farm Rd
New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-8551
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