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.

Quickstart: Compiling the NetCDF libraries

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

1. First of all unpack the gzipped tar file which you downloaded, e.g. "tar -xzf netcdf-3.6.0-p1.tar.gz"
2. Change directory to that containing the source code, e.g. "cd netcdf-3.6.0-p1/src"
3. The libraries are written in C and Fortran. You need to set some environment variables to tell the installation process which compilers you are using. On my Linux system, using gcc to compile the C code and ifort for the Fortran, I typed the following in my bash shell:
   • export CC=gcc
   • export FC=ifort
   • export CPPFLAGES="-DpgiFortran"
4. Now run the configure script. You can use the "--prefix" option to choose where to install the libraries. For example, "--prefix=/opt/local" will cause files to be placed in /opt/local/lib, opt/local/bin and /opt/local/include.
5. Finally run make and then make install.