topic Re: open netcdf file with different years in Data Management Questions

open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:02:33 GMT

I downloaded monthly gridded data from this website: http://browse.ceda.ac.uk/browse/badc/cru/data

(Registration is free, but required. Once registered, go to the tab “dataset” and search for “CRU”. You will find a number of datasets. Click on “CRU TS3.23: Climatic Research Unit (CRU) Time-Series (TS) Version 3.23 of High Resolution Gridded Data of Month-by-month Variation in Climate (Jan. 1901- Dec. 2014)”, click “Data”, then chose a variable (for instance “pet”). Chose the year-period (I took 2001-2010).

The file that you have now should contain monthly grids from January 2001 till December 2010. It is a netcdf file but I do not manage to see the different years. Once I open in it Arc Gis, I don’t find a way to select the different year/month-layers. I used "multidimensional tools" in the toolbox to open the map. I found on the internet somebody else who had the same problem, but I don't understand how he solved it. I am relatively new to ArcGis. (NetCDF to Raster (arcgis) - GIS - CartoTalk )

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:08:18 GMT

And probably relevant to mention: I have followed the instructions here: How to Define and Visualize Time Dimension in ArcGIS | GES DISC

But the time slider does not work for me.

Re: open netcdf file with different years

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 16:26:53 GMT

Yes, but did you go through these links

What is netCDF data?—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

About the netCDF Tutorial—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Reading netCDF data using geoprocessing tools—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

plus more using netcdf as a search term

Search Result | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: open netcdf file with different years

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 19:10:40 GMT

you might want to move this to Managing Data to see if there are any other ideas

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 19:14:32 GMT

Hi Dan,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I have been looking at the website (I didn't know all of them), but they do not answer the questions that I have.

I have moved the question as you suggested! Thanks!

Re: open netcdf file with different years

AndrewKeith3 — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:23:35 GMT

Once added to your map, double click on the layer and click on the NetCDF tab. Under this tab you can click on Value and change the time you want to look at.

Re: open netcdf file with different years

AndrewKeith3 — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:28:14 GMT

You can also go to the Time tab and time enable the layer to make it easy to step through the different time intervals.

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 06:50:33 GMT

Hi Andrew,

Thank you very much for your reply and sorry for my belated answer!

I do not manage to do what you suggest because I have a problem with reading the time dimension. The file I upload ranges from january 2000 to december 2010.

However, it shows me only some time values in 1900 (which is not correct since only monthly values are available).

I should be able to adapt this under the 'Time-tab' but each time I change the 'Time Step Interval' to 'Months', it changes it back to 'Minutes'.

Re: open netcdf file with different years

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:51:09 GMT

there seems to be a regional setting differences between your examples and Andrew's

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:00:51 GMT

Which I can solve only if I know Andrew's settings? Or do you see from the example I gave immediately where the difference is?

Re: open netcdf file with different years

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:10:41 GMT

time offset yours is 0,00 which is the comma decimal separator if I am not mistaken

Re: open netcdf file with different years

AndrewKeith3 — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:14:54 GMT

Try dragging the nc file from file explorer into your mxd instead of using Make NetCDF raster layer. Also, check the box "Data changes frequently so calculate time extent automatically'. My local computer time settings are UTC-06:00 Central Time (US & Canada).

Re: open netcdf file with different years

AndrewKeith3 — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:25:00 GMT

To Dan's post, look here for more info:

Changing the way ArcMap displays short format dates in Windows 7—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:52:52 GMT

Yes! I got it! Thank you very much. I don't believe I could have found this by myself. So once again thank you.

If I am allowed to ask one more question, is it possible to save the different layers as different shapefiles?

Re: open netcdf file with different years

AndrewKeith3 — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:55:43 GMT

These are not shapefiles, you could export to a raster format such as tif. Right click layer > Data > export data> follow prompt.

Re: open netcdf file with different years

JankaVanschoenwinkel — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 14:07:01 GMT

Okay! Thank you very much for your help!