Data Resources: How to Read PSD's netCDF Files
All of our data are stored in netCDF files. The times are encoded as the number of hours (or days) since 1-1-1 00:00:0.0 (or 1800-1-1 00:00:0.0) using the UDUNITS library. There is a public domain filter for output from the ncdump utility, called read.ncdump, available here. It understands the UDUNITS dates in our files and translates them to a human readable output. The ncdump utility is handy for taking a quick look at the file metadata and coordinate values, and is available as part of the standard NetCDF suite.
We also have a FORTRAN program which can be used as a starting point for reading our data.
In addition to the packages and code discussed above, there are many other display and analysis tools that can read and manipulate our netCDF files, including FERRET, GrADS, NCL, MATLAB, and IDL.
There is a FAQ which addresses problems you may encounter when trying to read our files. If all else fails, send e-mail to esrl.psd.data@noaa.gov and we'll try to help you out.