BADC Data Browser Help
The data browser allows you to navigate through our archives and view and
download files to your computer. For selected files you also have the option of
plotting out the contents of the file.
Some of the files in our archive are publicly available. Others have restricted
access. Files and directories to which you do not have access are marked
with the key symbol. The name next to the key symbol gives the group to which
you must belong in order to access the data.
By default you will only have access to files and directories which are
publicly available. To access other datasets (those marked with a key symbol)
you will need to get a BADC username and password and register for the
datasets you require. See
How to get data for more details.
Once you have a username and password from us you can use the Login
link on the data browser to login. You will then be able to access files from
the particular restricted datasets to which you have been given access.
Viewing and downloading individual files
When you click on a filename the contents of the file will be displayed in your
browser if it is in a format that can be displayed. You can then download the
file by using the Save as... facility on your browser (usually found under the File drop-down menu).
You should normally save the file as type Text (*.txt).
When you click on a filename where the contents are in binary format then your
browser should automatically ask you if you want to download the file to your
computer.
Downloading multiple files
If you wish to download several files from the same directory then it may be
easier to use the Download files box at the top right of the screen.
This allows you to specify the names of the files that you want, which can
include wildcard characters (see below). When you
press the Fetch button the files that you have selected will be listed
and you will be given the option of downloading them to your computer. The files
will be downloaded to your computer as a single gzipped tar file. This file can
be unpacked by using
WinZip
on PCs, or the
gzip and tar utilities on unix machines.
Versions of
gzip
and tar
(vmstar)
are also available for openVMS machines.
You will not be allowed to download files to which you do not have access.
There is also a limit on the total size of the files that you can download.
Specifying multiple files
When specifying multiple files you can use the following special characters:
|
* |
Wildcard which matches zero or more characters.
| Examples:
| |
wt* matches all files beginning with "wt".
| |
*.dat matches all files ending with ".dat"
| |
wt*.dat matches all files beginning with "wt" and ending with ".dat"
|
|
|
? |
Wildcard which matches exactly one character.
| Examples:
| |
as9?0102.dat matches "as990102.dat", "as980102.dat", "as970102.dat" etc.
|
|
|
, |
Separates multiple filename specifications.
| Examples:
| |
wt*,*.dat matches all files beginning with "wt" and all files ending
in ".dat".
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|
Plotting NASA-Ames files
NASA-Ames format files with File Format Index (FFI) 1001 can be plotted
from the data browser. Any files which are plottable will have a 'plot' link
next to them. Following this link will open a new window showing a plot of the
first dependent variable against the independent variable (which in most cases
should be time). Below the plot is a form which allows you to select another
dependent variable to plot. You can also change the scales of the plot and change
the plot symbol.
The box labelled Omit points with value allows you to
exclude any points from the plot which have a specified value. This can be used
to remove any points which are marked with a special value. (Note that the
NASA-Ames format itself requires that a 'fill' value is specified for each
variable. These values are automatically excluded from the plot).
Once you have made your selection, press the 'Plot' button on
the bottom right hand side of the form to generate the plot.
Special options for Met Office Surface stations data
The data browser has some special options when browsing the data files in the
ukmo-surface directory.
At the top of each directory which contains the data for a single station there
is a link named 'Station details'. This opens a separate window which displays
details of the station from our database.
Each data file has a 'Plot' link next to it. Following the link will open another
window which will display a plot of a selected parameter against date. You can
change the plot parameter using the form at the bottom of the graph. Details of
the parameters can be found by following the 'File format information' link.
The plotting works best for files which contain a single daily measurement. Some
file types contain data taken more than once per day. Plotting these files will
produce a vertical column of values for each day. These plots are still valid,
but are not as easy to interpret.
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