Re: has anyone looked at using visad

• To: "Raymond E. Flanery, Jr." <flaneryrejr@xxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: has anyone looked at using visad
• From: Tom Whittaker <tomw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 14:59:05 -0500

"Raymond E. Flanery, Jr." wrote:
> 
> for point set data? As near as I can tell, netCDF cannot be used for
> this. I have not yet looked at HDF, anyone know if it is a supported
> data structure there?

If I understand your meaning of "point set data" to mean in
situ-type data,
then I think NetCDF is an excellent file format for these data. 
At the URL:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/NUWG/

you will find the Unidata community's conventions for point data
from a variety of platforms: buoy, sao/metar, raob, mesonet,
lightning, rass and profiler.

NetCDF is even being used by the weather service to store color
tables for their new workstations (AWIPS).

Perhaps someone from Unidata will provide other information.

Regarding the use of VisAD: I have not yet demonstrated an
application for use with point (meteorological) data in VisAD;
however, thru the work I'm doing with NCEP model gridded data
(from netCDF files) and some collaborations with Unidata, we are
laying the foundations needed (navigation, map bases, weather
symbols, etc).  I see no real obstacles in the way of using VisAD
to render point data.

There is a NetCDF file adapter in VisAD, and Unidata has created
a set of classes for reading data from the files:
 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/java/index.html

Hope that helps.

tom

-- 
Tom Whittaker (tomw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center
Phone/VoiceMail: 608/262-2759
Fax: 608/263-6738

• References:
  • has anyone looked at using visad
    • From: Raymond E. Flanery, Jr.