NCL Workshop at the University at Albany, SUNY

The Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, SUNY is hosting a free NCL Workshop, May 21-24, 2013 in Earth Science 333, The Map Room.

The workshop will consist of both lectures and hands-on labs and is co-taught by Dennis Shea, an associate scientist in NCAR/NESL, and Mary Haley, a software engineer in NCAR/CISL.

During the hands-on labs, students will be encouraged to download their own datasets of interest, and Dennis and Mary will help them write NCL scripts to analyze and/or visualize them.

NCL Workshop Schedule

Earth Science 333, The Map Room

Tuesday, May 21
08:30-09:00 Pick up workshop materials
(Instructors will be on hand to help you log into your lab computer if necessary.)
09:00-10:15 Lecture: NCL Language Basics
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-12:00 Lecture: NCL File Input/Output
12:00-1:00 Lunch on your own
13:00-13:45 Interactive demo
14:00-17:00 Hands-on lab
Wednesday, May 22
09:00-10:15 Lecture: NCL Graphics
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-12:00 Lecture: NCL Graphics (continued)
12:00-13:00 Lunch on your own
13:30-14:00 NCL website tour
14:00-17:00 Hands-on lab
Thursday, May 23
09:00-10:15 Lecture: NCL Data Analysis
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-12:00 Lecture: NCL Data Analysis (continued)
12:00-13:00 Lunch on your own
13:00-17:00 Hands-on lab
Friday, May 24
09:00-12:00 Optional Lab

How to get the most out of the workshop labs

The hands-on labs, which are in the same room as the lectures, will be held in a room with 14 UNIX computers. Everybody who registers for the course will have a login, and all the necessary software will be installed. If two students are working on similar projects, they are welcome to double up on a computer. We do expect more than 14 people to sign up, so some folks may have to pair up, or you can bring your own laptop.

Students can also bring their own laptops, and Mary will help them install the necessary software. If you have a laptop running Windows, it will save a lot of time if you install Cygwin/X on it beforehand. Detailed instructions on this can be found on our Cygwin notes page.

The workshop labs are highly focused on helping students write NCL scripts that analyze and visualize datasets that students are already working with, rather than using canned datasets.

Thus, the instructors find that students get far more out of the labs if they have one or more datasets in mind that they'd like to analyze using NCL, and with a specific goal that they'd like to accomplish. For example:

  • "I want to use NCL to convert my ASCII files to NetCDF."
  • "I need to learn NCL so I can modify existing scripts."
  • "I want to learn NCL so I can compare it with other analysis tools."
  • "I want to create visualizations that compare my data to observational data."
  • "I need to create some publication-quality graphics for my dissertation."
  • "I would like to learn how to interpolate my data to a different grid."

During the labs, the instructors will work with students one-on-one to help download the datasets to their machines (if necessary), and then to write new NCL scripts or modify existing ones that analyze their data.

It's okay if you don't have any datasets to work with or a specific goal to accomplish. We will provide canned datasets and sample scripts just in case.

Before the workshop, if any student wants to provide us with one or more sample datasets that they plan to work with during the labs, then we will try to incorporate them into the lectures and demos, if possible.

You can use our ftp site to upload your data, but please do this at least a week before the workshop starts.

FTP instructions: 

    ftp ftp.cgd.ucar.edu
    <log in as "anonymous">
    <Use email address as password>
    cd incoming
    put file1
    put file2
    . . .
    quit

You can't list the contents of this directory, so email Mary (haley@ucar.edu) and Dennis (shea@ucar.edu) with the exact names of the files, and what you'd like to accomplish with them.

Prerequisites

This workshop will be geared towards new users of NCL, although intermediate and experienced NCL users are also welcome. Interested students must meet the following minimum requirements:

  • Have a basic knowledge of UNIX (MacOSX, Linux, or X/Cygwin), like how to list the directory contents, how to move or copy files from one directory to another, how to run programs from the UNIX command line, how to use ftp/sftp to upload/download files, and how to remotely login to other systems (via ssh, for example).

  • Know how to edit files using UNIX editors like vi, emacs, or nedit.

  • Have written code using an interpreted (e.g. Python, IDL, MATLAB) or a non-interpreted (e.g. Fortran, C) computer language.

Students who don't have knowledge of UNIX or at least one computer language will likely find the NCL workshop too advanced.

Registration

The registration for this workshop is now closed.

Email Mary Haley if you have any questions.

Workshop organizers

We'd like to thank the following folks for their support in hosting this workshop:

  • Organizer: Andrea Lang, Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (DAES)
  • DAES support: Ross Lazear (classroom), Kevin Tyle and David Knight (computing)

Contact information

If you have questions about the NCL workshop, send email to Mary Haley. If you have questions about the workshop location or the campus, send email to Andrea Lang.