s,
I don't know all the detail of Ferret because I have not used it since grad
school, but I do know that in many ways it is tailored to oceanographic data.
That is what my degree was in. Ferret does produce nice graphics, but I would
like to point out some of the present advantages of NCL, particularly for
atmospheric data:
1) NCL is based upon a netCDF data model, so that when data is read into
NCL it will carry with it all the attributes and coordinate variables of that
data (if they exist). This creates a robust data model.
2) The interface to read in netCDF, GRIB, HDF data is the same and takes just
two lines of code. IO is usually the beast of any computer language and NCL
has beat them all.
3) NCL also comes with a huge data processing capability that Ferret can not
beat. There are statistical functions, special atmospheric calculations,
regridding functions etc. You can peruse the list at:
http://ngwww.ucar.edu/ngdoc/ng/ref/ncl/NclFuncsAndProcs.html
4) The Graphics for NCL is ever evolving. There are several full time people
who develope graphics capabilities and examples. They are also there to provide
technical assistance and support. This is something you will not get from the
Ferret developers. For instance, just yesterday a user came by my office
because they needed to tweak a time series plot that they had. Within a day
that capability was added to the graphics package. I maintain an on line
graphical reference tutorial and library that is always growing. You can see
some of the topics at:
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/csm/support/CSM_Graphics/
5) WE also host NCL workshops periodically to get people spun up on NCL. YOu
can access information about those at:
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/csm/support/workshop.shtml
6) On the downside, if you only have acsii or binary data, and you want to
take advantage of NCL's data model, you will have to manually fill in the
attributes and coordinate variables. This is not necessary, but we find it
particularly interesting.
7) if you have some of your data, I would be happy to create a couple of demo
plots to see if NCL will work for you. Perhaps the biggest advantage is our
technical support team.
cheers,
sylvia
******************************************************
Sylvia Murphy EML: murphys AT ucar.edu
NCAR CGD/CAS PHN: 303-497-1720
1850 Table Mesa Dr FAX: 303-497-1333
Boulder, CO 80305
WEB: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/csm/support/
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/csm/support/CSM_Graphics/
******************************************************
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