NCL: Dumping Output of Supported Files

With any supported file format that NCL can read, you can use a program called ncl_filedump to dump the contents of the file to your screen.

As with the addfile function, ncl_filedump determines the type of the file by its extension: ".nc" for netCDF, ".grb" for GRIB1/GRIB (1 or 2), ".hdf" for HDF Scientific Data Set, "hdfeos" for HDF-EOS and ".ccm" for CCM History tape.

The simplest usage of this program is:

   ncl_filedump file.nc

which prints the header and variable information on the file, but not the actual values themselves. This output is similar to using "ncdump -h" on a netCDF file ("ncdump" is distributed with the netCDF software).

To see all the available options, type:

    ncl_filedump -h

Another common usage is to dump information about a particular variable, including its values:

    % ncl_filedump -v PRES_6_SFC ced1.lf00.t00z.ega.grb
    [...]
    filename:       ced1.lf00.t00z.eta
    path:   ced1.lf00.t00z.eta.grb
       file global attributes:
       dimensions:
          gridx_6 = 45
          gridy_6 = 53
          gridx_101 = 91
          gridy_101 = 113
          [...]
       variables:
          float PRES_6_SFC ( gridx_6, gridy_6 )
          [...]
     Variables:
           PRES_6_SFC:
        0.1009E+06  0.1009E+06  0.1009E+06  0.1009E+06  0.1009E+06  0.1008E+06
     0.1008E+06  0.1008E+06  0.1009E+06  0.1010E+06  0.1010E+06  0.1010E+06
     [...]

For complete information on ncl_filedump, see its documentation.