Data Tools

Most ARM data is archived and made available as time-series data in netCDF format. NetCDF (designed by Unidata) is relatively compact, is appendable, is capable of storing descriptive "meta-data" along with measurement data, and is platform-independent. However, the organization of data within netCDF files tends to follow conventions reflecting either the source or the end use of the data. Consequently, tools developed for use with netCDF files following one convention may not be optimal for use with those following another convention. For example, tools designed for examination of geographically-gridded data may not be well-suited for analysis of time-series data such as that generated by ARM. In addition, some of the practices used by ARM, being more than a decade old, are not in keeping with current recommendations of Unidata. (For example, ARM adopted a non-standard representation for time.)