Re: [las_users] Questions about adding data to LAS

[Roland Schweitzer <roland.schweitzer@xxxxxxxx>]

Roger,

Roger Olivella wrote:
> Greetings LAS users,
>
> I'm having some problems in adding data to our LAS:
>
> First of all, I'm trying to add altimetry data (CF-1.0 convention). 
> While doing “make” I get the following error:
>
> Argument "\x{30}\x{2c}..." isn't numeric in numeric ne (!=) at 
> ../xml/perl/LAS.pm line 1310.
> Axis latitude-y-id-5cf22bee2f: axis step (currently '0,05') must be != 
> 0 at ../xml/perl/LAS.pm line 1521
>
> I've found that /usr/local/las/bin/./addXML.sh is creating a wrong 
> XML. At the "latitude" tag, addXML creates the “step” attribute with 
> value “0,05”:
>
> <latitude-y-id-5cf22bee2f type="y" units="degrees_north">
> <arange start="32" size="321" step="0,05" />
> </latitude-y-id-5cf22bee2f>
>
> I've changed by hand step=”0,05" to step="0.05" and “make” worked 
> perfectly. So, is addXML.sh working properly or I'm doing something 
> wrong?
This issue has to do with the internationalization feature of Java.  
Java is nice in that it takes into account your default Locale when 
formatting numbers and uses the correct conventions for that Locale.  
However, the rest of the LAS software written in Perl cannot use numbers 
formatted in that way.  It's really my fault in that I not take this 
into account when I wrote the code.  I've added some code that alway 
sets the Locale to "US" so the numerical formatting always works with 
the rest of the LAS software.  You can find the release which fixes the 
problem at: ftp://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/pub/las/addXML/addXML-1.1.tar.gz.
> The second question is about how to add time series to LAS. 
> Specifically, I want to add the satellite data received by our HRPT 
> station (one NetCDF for each pass). I've tried to add directly this 
> data but LAS doesn't recognize “TIME” variable although I think it's 
> well defined:
>
> double TIME(TIME) ;
> TIME:units = "days since 1970-01-01 00:00:00" ;
> TIME:time_origin = "01-JAN-1970 00:00:00" ;
> TIME:axis = "T" ;
>
> I've found this link (LAS documentation website)
>
> http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/LAS/FAQ/descriptor_files.htm
>
> but I'm not sure that's what I want. Any idea?
If the idea is to display all of the time steps as one data set and 
variable in LAS then using a descriptor file will work.  You can also 
use one of the "time aggregating" OPeNDAP servers to achieve the same 
thing.  Look at the THREDDS data server for example: 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/tech/#TDS.
> Finally, I want to improve the resolution of the coastal lines (by 
> using etopo05). At
>
> http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/LAS/Mail_Archives/fu_2003/msg00264.html 
>
> I've found a short "howto" but I think it's obsolete (dataset.xml 
> doesn't exist at LAS 6.5.2.1). Do you know any other “howto”?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
I'm not sure what you are asking.  Do you want a better picture with 
more detailed coastlines for the Map Applet (where users select the 
geographic region to plot)?  If so then look here: 
http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/Ferret/LAS/FAQ/modifying_LiveMap.htm.  If 
that's not it, can you give us a more information about the specifics of 
what you need to improve with more detailed coastlines (masking, 
basemaps in plot images, etc.).

Roland
> Roger