Does anyone have suggestions for creating a netcdf to be read in as a raster? ArcGIS is using dimensions for display instead of lat & lon.

Question

A colleague of mine has been trying to create a netcdf of a satellite image in IDL and ArcGIS's tool is interprets the x and y cell dimensions (1,2,3...1000, etc.) as the latitude and longitude rather than finding the actual latitude and longitude variables in the netcdf. We are fairly new to creating netcdfs, at least ones that can be read across different programs, I imagine the file is not structured quite right. So, ArcGIS can read it in, but it does not show in the right place on the map. Thanks in advance for your help, we are a bit stumped.

ChristopherOrphanides · Answer

Thanks. I check out those links

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

other than what is in the help files...

What is netCDF data?—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop

I haven't check around much

ChristopherOrphanides · Answer

I was using Make NetCDF Raster Layer. When I try to select the dimension in that tool, it only offers x and y, which is what it automatically selects for the x and y cell dimensions. In a sense, maybe this is correct because those are the dimensions of the image, but they are not the locations - I would like it to find the lat and lon so it can display the image in the right place.

Using the tool Select by Dimension on the Raster Layer I created doesn't offer any options in the dropdown list - it is already using the x and y at that point and can't seem to find the lat & lon values.

My colleague is creating these netcdfs in IDL, and my guess is the structure isn't quite right for ArcGIS to find the lat and lon specifications. If there is a guide as to what the netcdf input should look like, how it should be structured with regards to reading into ArcGIS, that could be very helpful.