GENIE Using netCDF

What is NetCDF? and why use it?

NetCDF is fast becoming the de facto standard format for storing climate model data. It is a 'platform independent' format and so is good for sharing data between members of the community. The format is also flexible in what can be stored and self-documenting--two more very useful features. There is of course some overhead in learning any new file format, but I believe that using NetCDF is well worth the relatively small amount of effort involved.

Obtaining the NetCDF Libraries

You can download the source code for the NetCDF libraries from the Unidata NetCDF web page.

Compiling the NetCDF libraries--Quickstart

The Unidata webpage contains links to documentation on installing and using the libraries. However, the quickstart below, may be enough to get you going.

• First of all unpack the gzipped tar file which you downloaded, e.g. "tar -xzf netcdf-3.6.0-p1.tar.gz"
• Change directory to that containing the source code, e.g. "cd netcdf-3.6.0-p1/src"
• You need to set some environment variables. For bash or the ksh these are:

export CC=gcc
export FC=ifort
export CPPFLAGES="-DpgiFortran