A new version of Dimension Explorer is now available for download. Dimension Explorer 1.1 is an addin tool for exploring time-aware and multidimensional map data in ArcMap 10.3 and above.
Here is what's new in version 1.1:
- map layers created with the Make NetCDF Raster Layer and Make NetCDF Feature Layer geoprocessing tools are now supported.
- map layers with vertical dimension values defined as ranges (e.g. 0-10 meters, 5-50 meters, etc) are now supported.
- export a map animation in ArcMap to a series of still images to create video animations with applications such as Windows Movie Maker and ffmpeg.
- various bug fixes and optimizations.
Here is a video animation of the minimum Arctic sea ice extent for the years 1979 - 2014. I created it with Windows Movie Maker using still images exported via Dimension Explorer 1.1. The map includes a time-aware layer created with the Make NetCDF Feature Layer geoprocessing tool with data from the NOAA.
Dimension Explorer 1.1 can be downloaded here
If you are looking for data to get started with Dimension Explorer, the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Physical Sciences Division, (NOAA/ESRL PSD) has many large collections of spatial scientific data for climate and oceans in NetCDF format. I recommend starting with their gridded climate datasets. You can add most of their datasets to ArcMap using the Make NetCDF Raster Layer geoprocessing tool. If you get the error "One or both dimensions have variable spacing in their coordinates", use the Make NetCDF Feature Layer geoprocessing tool instead. If the datasets are stored as multiple files representing the data at different times, use the Mosaic Dataset to temporally aggregate the files using the NetCDF Raster Type. Finally, if you are working with temporal data of any type, be sure to time-enable the layer in ArcMap.
