netCDF files are generated from a given ASCII file with observational data. Observational data can be of different types:
Transformation is controlled by an ASCII file with the description of the data. As example a template of this file called description.dat.template is provided.
Observational ASCII file is expected to contain measurements of different variables at a same time like:
[Time1] [Var1] [Var2] [Var3] ... [varN]
(...)
[TimeM] [Var1] [Var2] [Var3] ... [varN]
According to the type of observation file might contain observations at different locations, fixed or time-changing
[comvals]':' separated list of characters used for comments inside the [descobsfilen]name of the file with the description of the ASCII file with the [endcol]character to indicate end of the column for each observed 'space', for spaces 'None',[fixcoljumps] for files with the measurements provided by fixed size columns[fixcoljumps]: ',' separated list of positions of column ends within the line[ASCIIobsfilen] ASCII file with the observations[dbg] whether debug is required ('false', 'true')[obskind]kind of observations one of: 'stations-map', 'multi-points','single-station', 'trajectory'[stvals]=[stname],[stlong],[stlat],[stheight] Values to describe the station, 'single-station':[stname] name of the station ('!' for spaces)[stlon] longitude of the station[stlat] latitude of the station[stheight] height of the station[cftimeval]=[Refdate],[tunits] values to generate the time following [YYYY][MM][DD][HH][MI][SS] format and institution=Institution who creates the datadepartment=Department within the institutionscientists=names of the data producerscontact=contact of the data producersdescription=description of the observationsacknowledgement=sentence of acknowlegementcomment=comment for the measurementsMissingValue='|' list of ASCII values for missing values within the data comment=commentsvarN='|' separated list of variable names (CF conventions recommended)varLN='|' list of long variable namesvarU='|' list units of the variables (CF conventions recommended)wmo_code_[NUM] as units and if wmo_[NUM].code exists (already available: wmo_code_[NUM]: Values of the codewmo_code_[NUM]_meaning: meaning of each codevarBUFR='|' list BUFR code of the variables (optional, can not be provided)varTYPE='|' list of variable types ('D', 'F', 'I', 'I64', 'S')varOPER='|' list of operations to do to the variables to meet their NAMElon=name of the variable (from varN, if applicable) with the longitude NAMElat=name of the variable (from varN, if applicable) with the latitude NAMEheight=name of the variable (from varN, if applicable) with the height NAMEtime=name of the varibale with the time (from varN) varN separated FMTtime=format of the time (as in 'C' (e.g.: %Y-%m-%d@%H:%M:%S), or use 'CFtime' for observational times which are already in CF-like format)wmo_[NUM].code file with structure: reference|web page, document reference with the codeshort_description|main description of the code wmo_code|[NUM]long_description|long description of the codecodeTYPE|type of the code (andy of 'D', 'F', 'I', 'S')@| Valuesline giving the start of the values[val1]|[meaning of first value](...)[valN]|[meaning of last value]