cmsaf (version 1.9.0)

read_nc: Read NetCDF variable.

Description

This simple function reads a variable of a NetCDF file into R.

Usage

read_nc(var,infile)

Arguments

var

Name of NetCDF variable (character).

infile

Filename of input NetCDF file. This may include the directory (character).

Value

The output depends on the NetCDF variable and is most commonly a 2 or 3 dimensional array.

Examples

# NOT RUN {
## Create an example NetCDF file with a similar structure
## as used by CM SAF. The file is created with the ncdf4 package.
## Alternatively example data can be freely downloaded here: 
## <https://wui.cmsaf.eu/>

library(ncdf4)

## create some (non-realistic) example data

  lon <- seq(5,15,0.5)
  lat <- seq(45,55,0.5)
  time <- seq(as.Date('2000-01-01'), as.Date('2010-12-31'), 'month')
  origin <- as.Date('1983-01-01 00:00:00')
  time <- as.numeric(difftime(time,origin,units='hour'))
  data <- array(250:350,dim=c(21,21,132))

## create example NetCDF

   x <- ncdim_def(name='lon',units='degrees_east',vals=lon)
   y <- ncdim_def(name='lat',units='degrees_north',vals=lat)
   t <- ncdim_def(name='time',units='hours since 1983-01-01 00:00:00',
   vals=time,unlim=TRUE)
   var1 <- ncvar_def('SIS','W m-2',list(x,y,t),-1,prec='short')
   vars <- list(var1)
   ncnew <- nc_create('CMSAF_example_file.nc',vars)
   ncvar_put(ncnew,var1,data)
   ncatt_put(ncnew,'lon','standard_name','longitude',prec='text')
   ncatt_put(ncnew,'lat','standard_name','latitude',prec='text')
   nc_close(ncnew)

## Load the data of variable 'SIS' of the example file into R.
   read_nc('SIS','CMSAF_example_file.nc')
# }