[gradsusr] xdfopen cdf file dimension problem/question

James T. Potemra jimp at hawaii.edu
Sat Aug 28 15:51:15 EDT 2010


Tom:

Make sure that the dimensions in your netcdf file are actually "lon" and 
"lat".  If not (e.g., they are latitude and longitude) you'll need to 
put that in the CTL file as XDEF/YDEF.  Maybe providing the output from 
"ncdump" on your cdf file would help see what's going on.

Jim

Thomas W. Collow wrote:
> Hello, I am having an issue with displaying a .cdf file using GrADS.  To keep it simple I will refer to the file as ?file.cdf.? The file is a time series of soil water content at different depths.
>
> The header of the file contains only two dimensions, depth and time.  I want to read this file using GrADS.  
> This is what happens when I use sdfopen:
>
> ga->sdfopen  file.cdf
> Scanning self-describing file file.cdf
> SDF file has no discernable X coordinate.
>
> My next approach is to use xdfopen and create a control file using information in the header and to specify the latitude and longitude.   Here is my control file, call it ?control?
>
> DSET file.cdf
> TITLE Data
> UNDEF -9999
> XDEF lon 01 levels -98 
> YDEF lat 01 levels 35 
> TDEF time 24 18:07Z31jul2010 1hr
> ZDEF depth 8 levels 5 15 25 35 60 85 125 175
> VARS 2
> watcont_W=>smw 8 99 water content west
> watcont_E=>sme 8 99 water content east
> ENDVARS
>
> Now I do xdfopen control and get this error
>
> ga-> xdfopen control
> Scanning Descriptor File:  control
> Alleged lon dimension (from YDEF) is not an SDF dimension.  Cannot continue.
> Lon dimension name is:
> lat
> .
> Alleged lat dimension (from XDEF) is not an SDF dimension.  Cannot continue.
> Lat dimension name is:
> lon
> .
> SDF file file.cdf was not successfully opened & parsed.
>
> I am trying to specify a specific latitude and longitude since I know what it is.  It is just not a dimension in the cdf file header.  Any suggestions on how I can fix this problem or is this file not able to be read by GrADS?
>
> Thanks
> Tom
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