NetCDF now in use at Oregon State/Oceanography

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: NetCDF now in use at Oregon State/Oceanography
• From: Tim Holt <holtt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 15:15:03 PDT

Hello...

INTRODUCTION:
   I guess this fits into the category of an announcement.  I want to use
this oportunity to say that we have made the plunge and are using netCDF
for data storage.  It is a kind of catch 22 to get people to use netCDF:
no one will use it until more people are using it, and no one is using 
it right now.  I would like to BOLDLY say that WE are using it, and I
hope MANY OTHERS will use it in the future.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
   The Oregon State University College of Oceanography's shipboard data 
acquisition, logging, and display system, known as XMIDAS (MIDAS -- gahd 
what a popular name), now uses netCDF for data storage.  The XMIDAS
system is a UNIX/X windows based system that manages a variety of data 
types, including navigatioal (position, speed, heading, etc), 
meteorological (winds, temp, rainfall, light intensity, etc), and 
other values (ship's pitch and roll, sea surface temperature, surface 
water conductivity and salinity, etc.).  This data is logged in netCDF
format and displayed in a series of X window based apps that provide
real time display via on screen stripcharts and map displays.

   This is a radical change in style and format from previous storage formats 
used at OSU -- past formats were all in ASCII and based on huge fixed 
length records.  Switching to netCDF will greatly ease the problem of
adding new data when future instruments come on line with the XMIDAS
system.

QUERY:
   I have read about some of the CDF/CDL "format standards" used by USGS
at WHOI and PMEL, and would be interested in discussing a more expanded
"format" for logging of underaway data by marine (or other) systems.  My
needs curently run towards logging raw, underway data, rather than the
pre-chewed post cruise data.  It is not in the NSF "mandate" for the OSU
Marine Tech group to "do science", so we don't do much in the way of
processing the data.

   I think that this would be a useful thing for all in the
Oceanographic community, especially with the beginnings of the SeaNet
system underway.  If the Oceanographic community wishes to have a
format for system connectivity, then we also must discuss other kinds of
format standards.

   If anyone in the group would care to discuss this, preferably here so
there is more feedback from the public, then let's do so...

              |   ||        Tim Holt / Marine Technician / RV Wecoma
+--==o_____+-/|--+||        College of Oceanography / Oregon State
_____|  R/V WECOMA  ~-----/ Corvallis, OR USA, 97331-5503       (503)737-4447
+------------------------'  holtt@xxxxxxxxxxxx