Hi,
I’m a physics student, and got interested in retrieving meteorological data (through Internet)
I spent good couple of days to just make a picture of file formats providing this data, sources and tools for reading it, and then give up discouridged by ECMWF and finally EUMETSAT portals. I have a picture of total mess unlike my expectations, like why I “must” strictly study Fortran when data is so divergent?
Then I thought to make it easier by using some of available java frontends which were offered on sites I already visited. First I tried three different versions of OPeNDAP Data Connector, but it couldn’t run on my Windows PC. Then I found IDV from Unidata, and after spending some time with it I think it has very good scheme for application workflow, while it has a learning curve and it’s most useful for US residents, while I live somewhere in Europe.
I discovered also Basemap, and it’s excellent package. If data is provided, it offers interface and utilities to whole Python in the same way. That is why I joined this mailing list and thought to ask for similar experiences, potentially advice on available tools for retrieving meteorological data and data itself.
For example, I can retrieve data from GFS/NOAA (which is BTW great, as only light in whole this experiance), and would appreciate similar maybe localized meso model data, and current satellite or radar data, or appropriate tools. I’m thinking I must have missed something, as this shouldn’t be so difficult task, or?
It sounds like maybe you missed http://pydap.org.
Eric
···
On 2012/07/24 4:04 PM, Vladan Divljak wrote:
Hi,
I'm a physics student, and got interested in retrieving meteorological
data (through Internet)
I spent good couple of days to just make a picture of file formats
providing this data, sources and tools for reading it, and then give up
discouridged by ECMWF and finally EUMETSAT portals. I have a picture of
total mess unlike my expectations, like why I "must" strictly study
Fortran when data is so divergent?
Then I thought to make it easier by using some of available java
frontends which were offered on sites I already visited. First I tried
three different versions of OPeNDAP Data Connector, but it couldn't run
on my Windows PC. Then I found IDV from Unidata, and after spending some
time with it I think it has very good scheme for application workflow,
while it has a learning curve and it's most useful for US residents,
while I live somewhere in Europe.
I discovered also Basemap, and it's excellent package. If data is
provided, it offers interface and utilities to whole Python in the same
way. That is why I joined this mailing list and thought to ask for
similar experiences, potentially advice on available tools for
retrieving meteorological data and data itself.
For example, I can retrieve data from GFS/NOAA (which is BTW great, as
only light in whole this experiance), and would appreciate similar maybe
localized meso model data, and current satellite or radar data, or
appropriate tools. I'm thinking I must have missed something, as this
shouldn't be so difficult task, or?
I have it 
I installed it yesterday.
On a first sight, it seemed to me like a tool for users interested in making local dap server (I have even considered that, until I run to IDV), but maybe I didn’t got it’s potential.
I’ll check it out again, thanks
···
On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:22 AM, Eric Firing wrote:
It sounds like maybe you missed http://pydap.org.
Vladan: You can access current NOAA forecasts (atmosphere and ocean) via opendap from http://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov. The netcdf4-python package (http://netcdf4-python.googlecode.com) can connect to these remote datasets via opendap, in fact many of the Basemap examples use this (see fcstmaps.py and plotsst.py in the examples directory).
You might also be interested in the data here
http://motherlode.ucar.edu/thredds/catalog.html
and here
-Jeff
···
On 7/24/12 8:04 PM, Vladan Divljak wrote:
Hi,
I'm a physics student, and got interested in retrieving meteorological data (through Internet)
I spent good couple of days to just make a picture of file formats providing this data, sources and tools for reading it, and then give up discouridged by ECMWF and finally EUMETSAT portals. I have a picture of total mess unlike my expectations, like why I "must" strictly study Fortran when data is so divergent?
Then I thought to make it easier by using some of available java frontends which were offered on sites I already visited. First I tried three different versions of OPeNDAP Data Connector, but it couldn't run on my Windows PC. Then I found IDV from Unidata, and after spending some time with it I think it has very good scheme for application workflow, while it has a learning curve and it's most useful for US residents, while I live somewhere in Europe.
I discovered also Basemap, and it's excellent package. If data is provided, it offers interface and utilities to whole Python in the same way. That is why I joined this mailing list and thought to ask for similar experiences, potentially advice on available tools for retrieving meteorological data and data itself.
For example, I can retrieve data from GFS/NOAA (which is BTW great, as only light in whole this experiance), and would appreciate similar maybe localized meso model data, and current satellite or radar data, or appropriate tools. I'm thinking I must have missed something, as this shouldn't be so difficult task, or?
Thanks Jeff,
and all you guys. I’m glad I asked this question, as I got great responses in just half an hour, compared to mostly useless days searching for same
Best wishes
···
On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:51 AM, Jeff Whitaker <jswhit@…146…> wrote:
Vladan: You can access current NOAA forecasts (atmosphere and ocean) via opendap from http://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov. The netcdf4-python package (http://netcdf4-python.googlecode.com) can connect to these remote datasets via opendap, in fact many of the Basemap examples use this (see fcstmaps.py and plotsst.py in the examples directory).
You might also be interested in the data here
http://motherlode.ucar.edu/thredds/catalog.html
and here
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/
For archived data, NCDC is king in my book. Especially when it comes to US NEXRAD radar data. They offer both GUI and CLI tools for data visualization and conversion. Usually, I Jude it to convert my radar data into netcdf format.
By the way, there are three major binary data formats to know in the metro world: grib, netcdf and hdf.
Happy data mining!
Ben Root
···
On Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Vladan Divljak wrote:
On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:22 AM, Eric Firing wrote:
It sounds like maybe you missed http://pydap.org.
I have it
I installed it yesterday.
On a first sight, it seemed to me like a tool for users interested in making local dap server (I have even considered that, until I run to IDV), but maybe I didn’t got it’s potential.
I’ll check it out again, thanks