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[netCDF #HHM-288509]: netCDF data user software programs



Hello Shannon, 

First, I'll give you this link in case you haven't seen it:  
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/software.html.  That is a list of 
software that uses netCDF in one capacity or another.  It is as comprehensive 
as we can make it, although we rely on self reporting.

Now, to answer your actual question.  I typically interact with two types of 
netCDF users.  One is software developers, and the other group are scientists.  
For the former, they tend to use the netCDF-C library, or the Fortran/C++ 
interface to the C library.  There is also netCDF-Java, distributed with 
thredds, which I would guess is used by Java developers.  I can't speak as to 
how broadly it is used, however.  

The latter group are typically more interested in visualization of netCDF data. 
 They may use the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), or ToolsUI (another Java-based 
Unidata tool), or one of any number of commercial or free tools.  We (the 
netCDF developers) provide command-line tools for querying netCDF files, but 
they are not for visualization.  

The netCDF Python interface is becoming very popular amongst both developers 
and scientists; it makes interacting with netCDF data almost trivial, and 
Python has so many tools/packages available as to make analysis/visualization a 
non-issue.  Unidata is actually offering our third annual 'Unidata Python 
Workshop' later this summer.  We, as an organization, are really pushing Python 
as a language for both developers and scientists, due to it's high 
accessibility and ease of use.

I hope this answers your question; perhaps some of the other developers will 
chime in with their opinions.

Thanks, have a great day,

-Ward

> Hello,
> 
> 
> 
> I'm with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and as you may know,
> we distribute netCDF data. I'm trying to determine what software programs
> and/or programming languages netCDF data users prefer/use. We have some idea
> of this here based on our own netCDF data users, but because netCDF is
> relatively new to our Center, I wanted to see if you (the producers of
> netCDF) could provide some additional insight.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't need solid metrics or anything, even just a general/rough idea of
> what types of software programs and/or programming languages that you are
> aware of that end users commonly use to analyze/visualize netCDF data.
> 
> 
> 
> I appreciate any insight you can provide!
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Shannon
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> Shannon Leslie
> Science Communications
> National Snow and Ice Data Center
> 
> University of Colorado at Boulder
> Phone: (303) 492-0332
> Email:  <mailto:address@hidden> address@hidden
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: HHM-288509
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed