[Paraview] troubles with netCDF reader ?

[Hart, Cynthia Joyce - (cyndyb)]

Folks –

I am struggling with using the netCDF reader, with a bunch of timeseries of WRF data output (weather prediction modeling).  I am a visualizer, NOT a meteorologist, and so, my full understanding of the model’s output is shaky at best.  The researcher I am trying to assist is currently on vacation, and I’m trying to animate the output of his WRF model.

So!  I have been viewing some of the output using the built in reader in Paraview (the ‘generic and cf’ reader) and it works for some variables, not for others.  I am using NCO tools to extract some of the variables of interest into their own CDF file, to try and isolate the problem Paraview has, reading some variables.. but that doesn’t help.  I am particularly trying to read a variable for radar data, “REFL_10CM”.  Here is the relevant bit of the file header from ncdump, below:

netcdf ARAD4_test2 {
dimensions:
                Time = UNLIMITED ; // (1 currently)
                south_north = 393 ;
                west_east = 639 ;
                bottom_top = 37 ;
variables:
                float REFD_MAX(Time, south_north, west_east) ;
                                REFD_MAX:FieldType = 104 ;
                                REFD_MAX:MemoryOrder = "XY " ;
                                REFD_MAX:description = "MAX DERIVED RADAR REFL" ;
                                REFD_MAX:units = "dbZ" ;
                                REFD_MAX:stagger = "" ;
                                REFD_MAX:coordinates = "XLONG XLAT XTIME" ;
                float REFL_10CM(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east) ;
                                REFL_10CM:FieldType = 104 ;
                                REFL_10CM:MemoryOrder = "XYZ" ;
                                REFL_10CM:description = "Radar reflectivity (lamda = 10 cm)" ;
                                REFL_10CM:units = "dBZ" ;
                                REFL_10CM:stagger = "" ;
                                REFL_10CM:coordinates = "XLONG XLAT XTIME" ;
                float XLAT(Time, south_north, west_east) ;
                                XLAT:FieldType = 104 ;
                                XLAT:MemoryOrder = "XY " ;
                                XLAT:description = "LATITUDE, SOUTH IS NEGATIVE" ;
                                XLAT:units = "degree_north" ;
                                XLAT:stagger = "" ;
                                XLAT:coordinates = "XLONG XLAT" ;
                float XLONG(Time, south_north, west_east) ;
                                XLONG:FieldType = 104 ;
                                XLONG:MemoryOrder = "XY " ;
                                XLONG:description = "LONGITUDE, WEST IS NEGATIVE" ;
                                XLONG:units = "degree_east" ;
                                XLONG:stagger = "" ;
                                XLONG:coordinates = "XLONG XLAT" ;
                float XTIME(Time) ;
                                XTIME:FieldType = 104 ;
                                XTIME:MemoryOrder = "0  " ;
                                XTIME:description = "minutes since 2016-07-29 12:00:00" ;
                                XTIME:units = "minutes since 2016-07-29 12:00:00" ;
                                XTIME:stagger = "" ;

Paraview complains that it cannot read a variable with more than three dimensions without time.  But there appears to ‘be’ time (I’m very unclear what “UNLIMITED” time , as seen in the header, refers to in this context).  Is there any way I can work around this?  Most frustrating.   I can actually read this variable into QGIS, but I’d rather use the strengths of Paraview to visualize this data.

Thanks in advance.


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