[ferret_users] How to read grads binary

[wilfran <wilfran65@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ferret users,

Does someone know how Ferret is reading a binary produced by Grads and
in particular how to specify the parameter /SKIP= ?

Basically, I have a grads binary which representes gridded data  of
Xsize = 120,  Ysize = 36,  Zsize = 1,  Tsize = 289

When trying to read these data with Ferret command lines  I have the
following error message:

        NOAA/PMEL TMAP
        FERRET v5.80
        Linux(g77) 2.4.18 - 01/03/05
         6-Aug-05 11:18

yes? define axis/x=20.5:139.5:1/unit=degrees     longitude ! 120
yes? define axis/y=35.5:70.5:1/unit=degrees      latitude  ! 36
yes? define axis/z=1000:1000:1/units=mbars zax
yes? define axis/t=29-DEC-1977:29-DEC-1985:10/unit=days tax  ! 289
yes? define grid/X=longitude/Y=latitude/Z=zax/T=tax ugrid2d
yes? !! describe the soil moisture  variable in the file
yes? FILE/VAR=n10/SKIP=`120*36*289`/GRID=ugrid2d/FORMAT=stream   grd.n10
 !-> SET DATA/EZ/VAR=n10/SKIP=1248480/GRID=ugrid2d/FORMAT=stream
grd.n10
yes? !!more information about variable "n10"
yes? set variable/TITLE="soil moisture in the top 10 cm"/UNITS="cm" n10
yes? !!Save the data to a NetCDF file
yes? save/FILE=grd.n10.cdf/TITLE="Observed top 10 cm soil moisture  in
1978-1985" n10
 **ERROR: Size of file ./grd.n10 doesn't match size specified by
variables/grid
yes?

Regards,

Wilfran Moufouma-Okia
Regional climate modeler