NCL: Creating NetCDF output with file predefinition

This approach requires the use of NCL's setfileoption, fileattdef, filedimdef, filevardef, and filevarattdef. It requires the user to define file contents before data values are written to file.

This code snippet shows the efficient way to write netCDF files from NCL. It is assumed that the variables and coordinates have already been read from another file or have been created within an NCL script. Variables are assumed to already have the required metadata, that is, attributes and dimension names, and if appropriate, coordinate information.

    ...
    ;===================================================================  
    ; Assume variables T, PS and ORO exist and that they have 
    ; associated meta data: (a) coordinate variables time, lev, lat, lon       
    ; and (b) attributes
    ;===================================================================  
        ntim  = dimsizes(time)                 ; get dimension sizes  
	klev  = dimsizes(lev)                                               
	nlat  = dimsizes(lat)  
	nlon  = dimsizes(lon)      

        diro = "./"                     ; Output directory
        filo = "example.nc"             ; Output file
	system("/bin/rm -f " + diro + filo)    ; remove if exists
	fout  = addfile (diro + filo, "c")  ; open output file

    ;===================================================================
    ; explicitly declare file definition mode. Improve efficiency.
    ;===================================================================
        setfileoption(fout,"DefineMode",True)

    ;===================================================================
    ; create global attributes of the file
    ;===================================================================
        fAtt               = True            ; assign file attributes
	fAtt@title         = "NCL Efficient Approach to netCDF Creation"  
	fAtt@source_file   =  "original-file.nc"
	fAtt@Conventions   = "None"   
	fAtt@creation_date = systemfunc ("date")        
	fileattdef( fout, fAtt )            ; copy file attributes    

    ;===================================================================
    ; predefine the coordinate variables and their dimensionality
    ; Note: to get an UNLIMITED record dimension, we set the dimensionality
    ; to -1 (or the actual size) and set the dimension name to True.
    ;===================================================================
        dimNames = (/"time", "lat", "lon", "lev"/)  
	dimSizes = (/ -1   ,  nlat,  nlon, nlev /) 
	dimUnlim = (/ True , False, False, False/)   
	filedimdef(fout,dimNames,dimSizes,dimUnlim)

    ;===================================================================
    ; predefine the the dimensionality of the variables to be written out
    ;===================================================================
    ; Here we are using NCL functions to facilitate defining 
    ; each variable's dimension name(s) and type. 
    ; The following could be replaced with explicit, user defined dimension 
    ; names different from those associated with the variable in memory. 
    ; Say, PS(time,lat,lon) in the NCL script. They could be redefined for the file via: 
    ; filevardef(fout, "PS"   ,typeof(PS) ,(/"TIME","latitude","longitude"/)) 
    ;===================================================================
       filevardef(fout, "time" ,typeof(time),getvardims(time)) 
       filevardef(fout, "lev"  ,typeof(lev),getvardims(lev) )                           
       filevardef(fout, "lat"  ,typeof(lat),getvardims(lat))                          
       filevardef(fout, "lon"  ,typeof(lon),getvardims(lon))                          
       filevardef(fout, "T"    ,typeof(T)  ,getvardims(T))    
       filevardef(fout, "PS"   ,typeof(PS) ,getvardims(PS))          
       filevardef(fout, "TOPOG",typeof(ORO),getvardims(ORO))  ; variable name on the file                
                                                              ; different from name on script
    ;===================================================================
    ; Copy attributes associated with each variable to the file
    ; All attributes associated with each variable will be copied.
    ;====================================================================
       filevarattdef(fout,"T",T)                           ; copy T attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"time" ,time)                    ; copy time attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"lev"  ,lev)                     ; copy lev attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"lat"  ,lat)                     ; copy lat attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"lon"  ,lon)                     ; copy lon attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"PS"   ,PS)                      ; copy PS attributes
       filevarattdef(fout,"TOPOG",ORO)                     ; copy TOPOG attributes

    ;===================================================================
    ; explicitly exit file definition mode. **NOT REQUIRED**
    ;===================================================================
        setfileoption(fout,"DefineMode",False)

    ;===================================================================
    ; output only the data values since the dimensionality and such have
    ; been predefined. The "(/", "/)" syntax tells NCL to only output the
    ; data values to the predefined locations on the file.
    ;====================================================================
       fout->time   = (/time/)     
       fout->lev    = (/lev/)
       fout->lat    = (/lat/)
       fout->lon    = (/lon/) 
       fout->T      = (/T/)
       fout->Z      = (/PS/)
       fout->TOPOG  = (/ORO/)