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Ferret, the Web, and NetCDF



Hi All,

Recent discussion on the NetCDF users group has lead to a new method of
integrating Ferret with the Web. With this technique Ferret will automatically
be brought up as a visualization tool when you click on a NetCDF file in your
favorite Web Browser (e.g. Netscape). It works like a charm. The (very short)
nitty gritty on how to set it up is below. Also some sites with NetCDF data.

You may find NetCDF files that do NOT work at some sites. NetCDF has great
potential as a file standard but the standardization job isn't finished. Have a
look at this URL regarding the on-going standardization efforts:

	http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/conventions.html

	- steve

============================================================================

Here are some test sites where I had instant success with this technique:

	http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/data
		("test.nc" is deliberately small for testing)
	   try
		yes? shade sst[t=15-jan]

	http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/fbin/climate_server
		has a number of research-quality climate data sets with
		fast access to data subsets - select any 1,2,3 or 4
		dimensional region and ask for a NetCDF file.


	http://www.cdc.noaa.gov
		The Climate Diagnostics Lab has an extensive NetCDF archive.
		Sample navigation: select "Data Archives Overview"
		then "a collection of metadata" then "coads1" then
		"sea_level_pressure" then "slp.ltm.nc" (ltm refers to "Long
		Term Mean" so this is a small file). There's lots of data
		and it's well documented but most of the files are pretty
		large for this type of browsing.

	http://rainbow.ldgo.columbia.edu/datacatalog.html
		Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University is
		another big NetCDF data supplier. For a test navigation try
		Data Library Tour->Finding a dataset->Datasets by Source->
		Datasets by Source->CLIMAP->Last Glacial Maximum->Temperature->
		Data Files->netCDF format


==============================================================================

Here's what I set up (hacked) to run Ferret as a Web helper:

	1) in my home directory I created file netcdf_via_ferret with these
	   lines:

		#! /bin/csh
		source **insert-your-path**/ferret_paths
		echo USE \"$argv[1]\" >! .ferret
		echo SHOW DATA >> .ferret
		/usr/bin/X11/xterm -e $FER_DIR/bin/ferret

	This script writes the two lines
		USE "/tmp/filename.cdf"
		SHOW DATA
	into the .ferret file of your $HOME directory.

	Note: i) these paths are for OSF ... slight diffs on other systems
	     ii) make sure to    "chmod +x netcdf_via_ferret"
	    iii) thie script over-writes your .ferret file


	2) in ~/.mailcap add the line

		application/x-netcdf;  netcdf_via_ferret %s

	3) in ~/.mime.types add the line

		application/x-netcdf          nc cdf

You'll probably have to start up a fresh copy of your browser (Netscape) so it
rereads the .mailcap information.


-- 

		|  NOAA/PMEL               |  ph. (206) 526-6080  
Steve Hankin	|  7600 Sand Point Way NE  |  FAX (206) 526-6744
		|  Seattle, WA 98115-0070  |  hankin@pmel.noaa.gov


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