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DOWNLOADING, DECOMPRESSING, AND READING DATA FROM THE WORLD OCEAN DATABASE 2005 |
For technical help or to report problems, please e-mail OCL.help@noaa.gov
Data description: All the WOA05 ASCII output files are in GZIP* compressed format. However, the user should be aware that different web browsers handle GZIP compressed files differently. Netscape automatically decompresses the
data file during download but maintains the file extension ('gz'). This
will cause problems with programs such as "gzip" or "WinZip"
because they will try, and fail, to uncompress the already uncompressed
file. NETSCAPE USERS: Can download the data file in two ways: (1) hold the "shift" key and click on the link to the data file or (2) right-mouse click on the link and select the "save link as" option. After you download the file simply remove the "gz" file extention. After downloading the file, you can view the data using any ASCII text editor. MOZILLA USERS: Can download the data file in two ways: (1) hold the "shift" key and click on the link to the data file or (2) right-mouse click on the link and select the "Save Link Target As ..." option. INTERNET EXPLORER USERS: Can download the data file by copying the link location to your browser and then saving the file in your local working directory. FAST TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP) USERS: Can download data via browser from ftp server using the following URL: ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/WOD05 or download the data directly via ftp ftp ftp.nodc.noaa.gov
Decompressing data:
Reading WOD05 data format: The WOD05 data format description can be found in the WOD05 documentation. The data format is comprised of several sections including primary header, secondary header, variable-specific second header, character data, biological header, taxa-specific and biomass data, and measured variables. The WOD05 native data format can be read in a number of ways: (1) The user can use any of a number of sample programs in FORTRAN and C to read the WOD05 native data format or the user can write his/her own code. The programs provided are designed simply as examples on how to read the WOD05 data for all types of datasets. The sample programs prompt the user to input a data file to read casts and variables included in these casts to the screen. Note that the user needs to modify the programs to incorporate user specific needs such as single or multiple input data files, output file(s), number of profiles, data output format and number of variables. The metadata codes listed within each cast are described in the code tables. (2) The user can also use the Ocean Data View* (ODV) software package to read the WOD05 native format and display the data. WOD05 data do not upload into versions of ODV prior to 3.1 ODV. The latest version is available from ODV website*. The user will need to open a new ODV collection (or add to an existing ODV collection) and specify "World Ocean Database Variables" in the "Definition of Collection Variables" menu. The detailed instructions are available from WOD05 tutorial (pdf, 0.1 MB). Note that ODV will not be able to read surface only data; originator's quality flags; or plankton biomass and taxonomic data in the OSD file. For technical help or to report problems, please e-mail OCL.help@noaa.gov |
Last modified: Thu, 23-Apr-2015 19:57 UTC | NCEI.info@noaa.gov | ||
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