NCL Tutorial - WRF Users' Workshop

This is a web page for attendees of the NCL Tutorial at the 18th Annual WRF Users' Workshop, June 16, 2017 at 8:30 AM.

We'll use this page to provide you with sample NCL scripts that you can download during the tutorial, if you want to follow the demos.

Official description of tutorial

This tutorial introduces the use of NCL to read, analyze and visualize WRF-ARW data. The focus will be on how to query WRF output files and read variables, how to calculate various WRF diagnostics, and how to create nice 2D visualizations. We will provide some template NCL scripts that you can use on your own WRF-ARW data.

Useful links

WRF output data files

We recommend that you come to the tutorial ready to use your own WRF output NetCDF files.

If you don't have any WRF output files, then you can download the wrfout_d01_2005-08-28_00:00:00 file (50 MB) that's used in many of the tutorial scripts.

Downloading and installing NCL

We will be using NCL Version 6.4.0 for the tutorial. NCL version 6.3.0 should also work.

Please come to the tutorial with NCL already installed, especially if you want to try some of the scripts during the tutorial. If you wait until the day of the tutorial, we likely will not have time to help you with installation issues.

To determine if you already have NCL and what version you have, type the following from the UNIX command line: 

  ncl -V

If you don't have NCL already installed, then you have different choices for installation depending on what kind of system you have:

Installing NCL

Mac Install NCL via "conda"
Install NCL via the Earth System Grid
Linux Install NCL via "conda"
Install NCL via the Earth System Grid
Windows 10 Install NCL under the Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux
Install NCL via the Earth System Grid
Older versions of Windows Install NCL under Cygwin/X (32-bit only)

Where to get help

If you have problems installing NCL, subscribe to the ncl-install email list and post your question there.