Run
RunASCII2NC Tool: Run
Start by making an output directory for ASCII2NC and changing directories:
mkdir -p ${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/output/met_output/ascii2nc
cd ${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/output/met_output/ascii2nc
cd ${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/output/met_output/ascii2nc
Since ASCII2NC performs a simple reformatting step, typically no configuration file is needed. However, when processing high-frequency (1 or 3-minute) SURFRAD data, a configuration file may be used to define a time window and summary metric for each station. For example, you might compute the average observation value +/- 15 minutes at the top of each hour for each station. In this example, we will not use a configuration file.
The sample ASCII observations in the MET tarball are still identified by GRIB code rather than the newer variable name option.
Dump that file and notice that the GRIB codes in the seventh column could be replaced by corresponding variable names.
For example, 52 corresponds to RH:
cat ${METPLUS_DATA}/met_test/data/sample_obs/ascii/sample_ascii_obs.txt
Run ASCII2NC on the command line using the following command:
ascii2nc \
${METPLUS_DATA}/met_test/data/sample_obs/ascii/sample_ascii_obs.txt \
tutorial_ascii.nc \
-v 2
${METPLUS_DATA}/met_test/data/sample_obs/ascii/sample_ascii_obs.txt \
tutorial_ascii.nc \
-v 2
ASCII2NC should perform this reformatting step very quickly since the sample file only contains data for 5 stations.