<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">The docs are here: <a href="http://iges.org/grads/gadoc/SDFdescriptorfile.html">http://iges.org/grads/gadoc/SDFdescriptorfile.html</a><div><br></div><div><div>Your descriptor would look something like this (spots with "<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">...</font>" need to be filled in by you): </div><div><br></div><div>dset ^mam3_aerocom2.cam2.h0.0001-0005.avg.nc<br>dtype netcdf</div><div>TITLE AeroCom Present Day<br>UNDEF 1.e36<br>OPTIONS 365_day_calendar<br>xdef 144 <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">...</font></div><div>ydef 96 <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); ">...</span></div><div>zdef 30 linear 1 1</div><div>tdef 1 linear jan2000 1mo<br>VARS 1<br>T=>t 30 t,z,y,x Temperature<br>ENDVARS</div></div><div><br></div><div>--Jennifer</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Feb 8, 2011, at 12:35 PM, Ghan, Steven J wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>I'm not sure what you mean by a full-blown descriptor for 'open'. Could you direct me to documentation?<br><br>-<br>Where<br>t.ddf =<br>dset ^mam3_aerocom2.cam2.h0.0001-0005.avg.nc<br>TITLE AeroCom Present Day<br>UNDEF 1.e36<br>OPTIONS 365_day_calendar<br>tdef time 1 linear jan2000 1mo<br>VARS 1<br>t=>t 30 99<br>ENDVARS<br><br>According to ncdump,<br><br>netcdf mam3_aerocom2.cam2.h0.0001-0005.avg {<br>dimensions:<br> lat = 96 ;<br> lon = 144 ;<br> lev = 30 ;<br> time = UNLIMITED ; // (1 currently)<br> double lat(lat) ;<br> lat:long_name = "latitude" ;<br> lat:units = "degrees_north" ;<br> double lon(lon) ;<br> lon:long_name = "longitude" ;<br> lon:units = "degrees_east" ;<br> double lev(lev) ;<br> lev:long_name = "hybrid level at midpoints (1000*(A+B))" ;<br> lev:units = "level" ;<br> lev:positive = "down" ;<br> lev:standard_name = "atmosphere_hybrid_sigma_pressure_coordinate" ;<br> lev:formula_terms = "a: hyam b: hybm p0: P0 ps: PS" ;<br> double time(time) ;<br> time:long_name = "time" ;<br> time:units = "days since 0000-01-01 00:00:00" ;<br> time:calendar = "noleap" ;<br> time:bounds = "time_bnds" ;<br> float T(time, lev, lat, lon) ;<br> T:units = "K" ;<br> T:long_name = "Temperature" ;<br> T:cell_methods = "time: mean" ;<br>// global attributes:<br> :Conventions = "CF-1.0" ;<br> :source = "CAM" ;<br> :case = "mam3_aerocom2" ;<br>}<br>Interestingly, if I remove the<br>VARS 1<br>t=>t 30 99<br>ENDVARS<br>from t.ddf, I can open the netcdf file, but query tells me<br>ga-> q file<br>File 1 : AeroCom Present Day<br> Descriptor: t.ddf<br> Binary: mam3_aerocom2.cam2.h0.0001-0005.avg.nc<br> Type = Gridded<br> Xsize = 144 Ysize = 96 Zsize = 30 Tsize = 1 Esize = 1<br> Number of Variables = 1<br> 30 t,z,y,x Temperature<br><br>The variable name is missing! So grads is unable to get the variable name. And of course I have no way of identifying the variable.<br><br>The curious thing is that I was not having any such trouble until I produced a new batch of model history. I compared the ncdumps from the history that I could read with history that I could not, and found only trivial differences unrelated to variable names.<br><br>Any suggestions out there regarding this puzzler?<br><br>-Steve Ghan<br><br>_________________________________<br>Steven Ghan, PhD.<br>FUNDAMENTAL & COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES DIRECTORATE<br>Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division<br>Pacific Northwest National Laboratory<br>902 Battelle Boulevard<br>P.O. Box 999, MSIN K9-24<br>Richland, WA 99352 USA<br>Tel: 509-372-6169<br>Fax: 509-372-6168<br><a href="mailto:steve.ghan@pnl.gov">steve.ghan@pnl.gov</a><br>http://www.pnl.gov/atmospheric/staff/staff_info.asp?staff_num=5663<br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>gradsusr mailing list<br>gradsusr@gradsusr.org<br>http://gradsusr.org/mailman/listinfo/gradsusr<br><br><br>--<br>Jennifer M. Adams<br>IGES/COLA<br>4041 Powder Mill Road, Suite 302<br>Calverton, MD 20705<br>jma@cola.iges.org<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>gradsusr mailing list<br>gradsusr@gradsusr.org<br>http://gradsusr.org/mailman/listinfo/gradsusr<br><br><br>--<br>Jennifer M. Adams<br>IGES/COLA<br>4041 Powder Mill Road, Suite 302<br>Calverton, MD 20705<br>jma@cola.iges.org<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>gradsusr mailing list<br>gradsusr@gradsusr.org<br>http://gradsusr.org/mailman/listinfo/gradsusr<br><br><br>--<br>Jennifer M. Adams<br>IGES/COLA<br>4041 Powder Mill Road, Suite 302<br>Calverton, MD 20705<br>jma@cola.iges.org<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>gradsusr mailing list<br>gradsusr@gradsusr.org<br>http://gradsusr.org/mailman/listinfo/gradsusr<br></div></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>--</div><div>Jennifer M. Adams</div><div>IGES/COLA</div><div>4041 Powder Mill Road, Suite 302</div><div>Calverton, MD 20705</div><div><a href="mailto:jma@cola.iges.org">jma@cola.iges.org</a></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>