GPCP precipitation data script

[Ben Burford]

Hi,

I want to look at the GPCP 1 degree daily precipitation dataset with Grads.
 Does anyone have a script for reading in this dataset (and possibly doing s
ome types of processing on it)?  I'm something of a Grads beginner and build
ing a script from scratch would be a big job for me.  If anyone has a script
 for a similar (not identical) dataset, that I could modify to this specific
 dataset, that would also be very helpful.

The dataset description is:

Each monthly file consists of a 1440-byte header record containing ASCII
characters (which is the same size as one row of data), then a month (28,
29, 30, or 31) of daily grids of size 360x180 containing REAL*4 values.
The header line makes the file nearly self-documenting, in particular
spelling out the variable and version names, and giving the units of the
variable.  The header line may be read with standard text editor tools or
dumped under program control.  All the month's days of data are present,
even if some have no valid data.  Grid boxes without valid data are
filled with the (REAL*4) "missing" value -99999.  The data may be read
with standard data-display tools (after skipping the 1440-byte header) or
dumped under program control.
..........................................................................

The *originating machine* on which the data files where written is a
Silicon Graphics, Inc. Unix workstation, which uses the "big-endian" IEEE
754-1985 representation of REAL*4 unformatted binary words.  Some CPUs
including PCs and DEC machines may require a change of representation
before using the data.


Thank you very much for any help,

Ben