...

Metview uses netCDF internally for the results of some computations. In particular, the analysis views do this, but their result data is not available to the user. Therefore, each of these views has a corresponding Data view - for example, there exist both a Cross Section View and a Cross Section Data icon. If the intention is to simply plot the result, then the View icons are more useful. But to store the result data, the Data icon is required.

Create both a Cross Section Vertical Profile View and a Cross Section a Vertical Profile Data icon and edit both to see the differences. All the parameters related to the visualisation of the result are only in the View icon, and the Data parameter exists only in the Data icon.

Dealing only with the Data icon now, drop the supplied input GRIB icon t_atmos.grib into the Data parameter box. Set the Point to whatever you like and save the icon. Now if you right-click and examine the icon, you will see the resulting netCDF file in the NetCDF Examiner. You can also save the result into a file for storage.

All of this can also be put into a macro, where the resulting netcdf variable can be further manipulated before being written to file (or visualised).

Geopoints

Geopoints is the ASCII format used by Metview to handle spatially irregular data (e.g. observations). There are a number of variations on the format, but the default one is a 6-column layout. The columns do not have to be aligned, but there must be at least one whitespace character between each entry.

...