Diana User Guide: File formats |  Previous: Vertical crossection functions |  Next: Batch plotting |  Index

Description and specification of supported file formats in Diana

Object files

Weather objects (fronts, symbols, areas etc.) are stored in object files which will normally have the time as extension on the form .yyyymmddhhmm. An example of such a file is given below:
Date=200510070900;

Object=Front;
Type=Warm front;
LongitudeLatitude=
-9.02711,59.8912,
-3.86701,62.8109,
5.02399,65.9834;
RGBA=255,0,0,255;
!
Object=Symbol;
Type=Fog;
Size=10;
LongitudeLatitude=
1.86341,66.0907;
RGBA=128,128,0,255;
!
Object=Symbol;
Type=Low pressure;
Size=10;
LongitudeLatitude=
0,82.2265;
RGBA=255,0,0,255;
!
Object=Symbol;
Type=Texts;
Text=F~9;
Size=10;
LongitudeLatitude=
0.532281,75.0545;
RGBA=0,0,0,255;
!


LABEL anno=<text="Surface analysis for 2005-10-07 09 UTC"> tcolour=red bcolour=black fcolour=white:200 polystyle=both halign=left valign=top font=Helvetica fontsize=12

Observations in BUFR format

Diana supports reading observations in BUFR format with support of standard WMO and rdb templates. More informations on wich parameters that are decoded can be found on https://diana.wiki.met.no/doku.php?id=diana_bufr

Observations in ascii format

An example an observation ascii file is given below:

[COLUMNS
Date:d      Time:t:"some text"     Lon:lon     Lat:lat      RRR:r   Station:s   Icon:image]

[DATA]
2004-11-20  12:00:00               10.86     59.55        0.4      "Dear home" wbkz_green
2004-11-20  12:00:00               10.51     59.89        0.1      Home        wbkz_red
2004-11-20  12:00:00                9.99     59.19        6.3      Somewhere   wbkz_white
  


Header

CommandExampleDescription
UNDEFINED[UNDEFINED NaN,Inf] NaN and Inf are treated as undefined values
SKIP_DATA_LINES[SKIP_DATA_LINES 3] Skip first 3 data lines
LABEL[LABEL text="Label text"] Syntax: see Labels
COLUMNS[COLUMNS Date:d Time:t:"some text" Lon:r Lat:r] name:type or name:type:tooltip
DATA[DATA] Start of data section

Column types

Column typeDescription
r Real number
i Integer number
s String
d Date (yyyy-mm-dd)
t Time (HH:MM:SS)
year yyyy
month mm
day dd
hour HH
time MM
lat Latitude in degrees
lon Longitude in degrees
dd Wind direction in degrees <0,360]
ff Wind speed in m/s
ffk Wind speed in knots
image Name of xpm, must be defined in setup

Time


Fields in NetCDF files (CF-1.1 compatible)

Diana supports reading fields from NetCDF files following the CF-1.1 conventions for climate and forecast metadata (see http://www.cfstandard.org for specifications of the standard), with the following limitations:

Regular grids

Diana supports regular grids only

Supported parameters

There are no limitations on the parameters you can include in the NetCDF file. Just make sure all the parameters you intend to show in Diana are declared in the NETCDF_PARAMETERS section in the setupfile. Also, remember to set correct filetype to your NetCDF-files in the FIELD_FILES section in the setupfile.

Supported map projections

Diana supports a subset of the map projections specified in the CF metadata standard:
  1. Geographic projection
    Note that the x/longitude dimension is ordered in Diana as [-180,180] degrees, and the fields will be recalculated to match this scheme if they are stored differently in the file (i.e. as [0,360] degrees). This will give some performance penalty when reading fields. Likewise, the y/latitude dimension is ordered as [-90,90] degrees in Diana, and you will find your grid flipped upside down if you order your data from [90,-90].
    The following attributes are supported:
     grid_mapping_name=geographic
     false_easting
     false_northing
    	
  2. Polar stereographic projection
    Diana also supports grid_mapping_name=stereographic with the limitation that latitude_of_projection_origin must be either -90 or 90, reducing the projection to a polar stereographic case.
    The following attributes are supported:
     grid_mapping_name=polar_stereographic
     latitude_of_projection_origin= -90 OR 90
     standard_parallel OR scale_factor_at_projection_origin
     false_easting
     false_northing
    	
  3. Rotated latitude_longitude projection
    The following attributes are supported:
     grid_mapping_name=rotated_latitude_longitude
     grid_north_pole_latitude
     grid_north_pole_longitude
     false_easting
     false_northing
    	

IMPORTANT NOTES

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