EUMETSAT plans to create netCDF-4 products for the upcoming MTG and EPS-SG
missions. We want to make use of the netCDF-4 enhanced features such as groups,
but we found very few examples of others using this format, let alone the
enhanced features. This slow uptake probably also explains the lack of
netCDF-4-ready tools. But with more users moving to netCDF-4 I would expect
there to be a bigger incentive to update tools to support it. There is now a
group looking to update the CF-Conventions to cover netCDF-4 so it does appear
to be gaining acceptance.
If anybody wants to start a netCDF-4 support group, I'd also be interested in
hearing what problems other netCDF-4 users have encountered and overcome and
which tools they have found available.
Regards,
Tim Patterson
Consultant
EUMETSAT
Eumetsat-Allee 1
6429 Darmstadt
Germany
-----Original Message-----
From: netcdfgroup-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:netcdfgroup-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cathy Smith (NOAA
Affiliate)
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 4:53 PM
To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [netcdfgroup] what is status of netCDF3 vs netCDF4?
NetCDF'ers
We've changed many of our files from netCDF3 to netCDF4 both to take advantage
of internal packing but also because they work better in some software (NCL).
We have heard from users of problems reading the newer format. Often they don't
have their applications or netCDF library upgraded to the latest versions but
sometimes, software they relied on isn't available for netCDF4. For example,
EXCEL does not have a netCDF4 interface and a package called "FAN" probably
doesn't. Should we be assuming users and software developers ought to be
netCDF4 ready or is
netCDF4 more of a language for advanced users and there is no expectation that
users use it as opposed to netCDF3? Should unidata be facilitating the update
of packages to netCDF4? I'm thinking more of local software such as on this
page http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/Contrib.html but also packages
like EXCEL.
We do suggest users can convert the files back to netCDF3 if possible but there
are downsides to that for the users.
Thanks,
Cathy Smith
--
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http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/people/cathy.smith/
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