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 multiple files then it may be easier to use the Download multiple files box at the top right of the screen. This allows you to select a set of files for downloading as a single gzipped tar file. To unpack these files you will need a utility such as WinZip on Windows or gzip and tar utilities on unix machines. Note that attempting to download many files at once is likely to result in long download times and possible failure. You are advised to split large downloads into more manageable chunks. An alternative way of downloading a large amount of data is to use FTP.

Downloading multiple files from a single directory

Use the data browser to navigate to the directory that you want to download files from then enter an appropriate file specification in the 'Download multiple files' box. You can use the following special characters, i.e. wildcards, in the file specification (wildcards may be used within file names, directory names or both together):

* Wildcard which matches zero or more characters.
Examples:
* matches all files in the directory.
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.
[ ] Character list wildcard within square brackets which matches exactly one character. Multiple characters and range expressions may be mixed within each list wildcard.
Examples:
199[69].dat matches 1996.dat and 1999.dat
200[0-5].dat matches 2000.dat, 2001.dat, etc through 2005.dat
200[0-379].* matches all files 2000.*, 2001.*, 2002.*, 2003.*, 2007.*, 2009.*
1993/????0[1-6]/*.2bt matches all files 1993/*/*.2bt for the first six months of 1993.

Downloading multiple files from multiple directories

If you want to download files from more than one directory then you can use the 'depth' parameter. By default this is set to 1, which selects only files from the current directory. Specifying a depth of 2 will select files from the current directory and from any subdirectories below the current directory. Specifying a depth of 3 will select also select files in the subdirectories of subdirectories. Currently you can only specify a maximum depth of 3.

Downloading multiple files from selected directories

Using a file specification together with the 'depth' parameter should cover most requirements. However, if you need more control over what directories are selected then there is a more advanced way of doing this. If the file specification includes a / character then it is interpreted as specifying the filename and path of the files required. For example, the following file specification will select all files ending in '.txt' in the subdirectories with names beginning with 'eae-9':

*eae-9*/*.txt

Note that the 'depth' parameter is still used and you will therefore need to make sure that it is set to an appropriate value. (If you used the default value of 1 then no files would be selected by the above specification as they are all below the current directory).

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.