NCL users -
I have been attempting to read in and plot 4x daily NCEP/NCAR 
reanalysis precipitable water data.  I found a previous message in this 
list from 2 years ago concerning temperature data, and it was helpful 
in including the add_offset and scale_factor attributes, but the 
numbers still don't make sense.  I assume it has something to do with 
the way I am calculating PW using the offset and scale factor, but none 
of my other results make sense either.  The values would ideally range 
from ~10 - 60 mm (kg/m2).  I've included my script and the output 
below.
Thank you for your help!
********************************************
Andrew Snyder
Graduate Student
Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Purdue University
begin
   diri   = "./"
   fili   = "pr_wtr.eatm.2002.nc"
   f      = addfile (diri+fili, "r")
   vnam = getfilevarnames (f)  ; list of variables that are in file
   print (vnam)
   p_wat              = (f->pr_wtr)
   p_wat@long_name    = "Total Precipitable Water"
   p_wat@units        = "mm"
   p_wat@scale_factor = 0.01
   p_wat@add_offset   = 277.65
   pwat = new ((/dimsizes(p_wat)/),float,1.e+20)
;  pwat = (p_wat*p_wat@scale_factor) + p_wat@add_offset
   pwat = (p_wat@scale_factor * (p_wat@add_offset + p_wat))
   copy_VarMeta (p_wat,pwat)
   delete (p_wat)
   lat2d  = f->lat  ; read 2d latitude grid from file
   lon2d  = f->lon  ; read 2d longitude grid from file
   pwat@lat2d = lat2d
   pwat@lon2d = lon2d
   min_pwat = min( pwat )
   max_pwat = max( pwat )
   printVarSummary(pwat)
   print ("Minimum PWV = "+min_pwat+"  Maximum PWV = "+max_pwat)
   print (pwat(1:4,12:14,121:124))
   nvars = dimsizes (pwat)
   print (nvars)
end
And the important part of the output is as follows:
Variable: pwat
Type: float
Total Size: 61390080 bytes
             15347520 values
Number of Dimensions: 3
Dimensions and sizes:   [time | 1460] x [lat | 73] x [lon | 144]
Coordinates:
             time: [17540448..   0]
             lat: [90..-90]
             lon: [ 0..357.5]
Number Of Attributes: 3
   lon2d :       <ARRAY>
   lat2d :       <ARRAY>
   _FillValue :  1e+20
(0)     Minimum PWV = -6.60001  Maximum PWV = 277.65
Variable: pwat (subsection)
Type: float
Total Size: 192 bytes
             48 values
Number of Dimensions: 3
Dimensions and sizes:   [time | 4] x [lat | 3] x [lon | 4]
Coordinates:
             time: [17540454..17540472]
             lat: [60..55]
             lon: [302.5..310]
Number Of Attributes: 3
   _FillValue :  1e+20
   lat2d :       <ARRAY>
   lon2d :       <ARRAY>
(0,0,0) 8.5
(0,0,1)  8
(0,0,2) 7.399994
(0,0,3) 7.100006
(0,1,0) 7.799988
(0,1,1) 6.600006
(0,1,2) 5.899994
(0,1,3) 6.200012
(0,2,0) 5.5
(0,2,1) 4.700012
(0,2,2) 4.600006
(0,2,3) 5.399994
(1,0,0) 8.899994
(1,0,1) 8.899994
(1,0,2) 8.100006
(1,0,3)  7
(1,1,0) 7.600006
(1,1,1) 6.700012
(1,1,2) 5.899994
(1,1,3)  6
(1,2,0) 5.700012
(1,2,1) 4.899994
(1,2,2) 4.399994
(1,2,3) 4.799988
(2,0,0) 7.899994
(2,0,1) 7.700012
(2,0,2) 7.200012
(2,0,3) 6.399994
(2,1,0) 7.200012
(2,1,1)  6
(2,1,2) 5.200012
(2,1,3) 5.299988
(2,2,0) 6.399994
(2,2,1) 5.200012
(2,2,2) 4.200012
(2,2,3) 4.100006
(3,0,0) 7.600006
(3,0,1) 7.799988
(3,0,2) 7.200012
(3,0,3) 6.200012
(3,1,0) 7.200012
(3,1,1) 6.600006
(3,1,2) 5.899994
(3,1,3) 5.600006
(3,2,0) 6.399994
(3,2,1) 5.899994
(3,2,2) 5.200012
(3,2,3) 4.799988
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