The following code has been supplied by Geraint Vaughan for extracting
version-3 MST radar Cartesian data from netCDF files into IDL. It can be
modified to read data from other netCDF files into IDL. It can be downloaded
as a
file <A href="DOWNLOADS/idl_code_to_read_v3_mst_cartesian_files.pro">idl_code_to_read_v3_mst_cartesian_files.pro</A>.

<PRE>
<FONT class="code_black">;*************************************************************************************
;Routine to read MST radar NetCDF files in IDL.
; G Vaughan January 2010
; Designed to be called from a program which will use the data.
; Variable names should be self-explanatory
pro read_mst_data,dir,yr,mon,day,date,ntime,nalt,time,height,U,V,W,speed,power,width,aspect
;
; Choose file to read from directory dir (supplied through call to routine)
;
file=dialog_pickfile(path=dir,filter='*.nc')
;
; NetCDF calls to read data
;
netid=NCDF_OPEN(file)
ncdf_attget,netid,'data_year',yr,/global
ncdf_attget,netid,'data_month',mon,/global
ncdf_attget,netid,'data_day',day,/global
ncdf_diminq,netid,ncdf_dimid(netid,'time'),chart,ntime
ncdf_diminq,netid,ncdf_dimid(netid,'altitude'),charh,nalt
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'time'),time
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'altitude'),height
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'eastward_wind'),U
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'northward_wind'),V
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'horizontal_wind_components_are_reliable'),uflag
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'horizontal_wind_components_reliability_details'),urel
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'vertical_beam_signal_power'),power
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'vertical_beam_radial_velocity'),W
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'vertical_beam_data_are_reliable'),wflag
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'vertical_beam_data_reliability_details'),wrel
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'beam_broadening_corrected_spectral_width'),width
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'beam_broadening_corrected_spectral_width_is_reliable'),xflag
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'beam_broadening_corrected_spectral_width_reliability_details'),xrel
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'aspect_sensitivity'),aspect
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'aspect_sensitivity_is_reliable'),aflag
ncdf_varget,netid,ncdf_varid(netid,'aspect_sensitivity_reliability_details'),arel
ncdf_close,netid

; Create date string and convert time and height to hours and km
date=string(yr,format='(i5)')+string(mon,format='(i3)')+string(day,format='(i3)')
height=height/1000  & time=time/3600

; Arrays transposed so that IDL contour routine plots time and height correctly
power=transpose(power)

; Set w values flagged as unreliable to missing data, and transpose
; If you don't want to use the flags, comment out the first line
W(where(wflag eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN
W = transpose(W)

; for horizontal winds, you can choose to use the overall reliable flag or one or more
; of the individual bits in the reliability detail variabls. Here wind speed is selected using
; bit 8 of the reliablility detail variable while U and V are selected using the overall flag
U=transpose(U) & V=transpose(V) & uflag=transpose(uflag) & urel=transpose(urel)
speed = sqrt(U*U + V*V)
cflag = 8 ;complementary beam components both reliable
ind = 2^cflag
urel = urel AND ind                 ; Bitwise AND - see IDL documentation
speed(where(urel eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN
U(where(uflag eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN
V(where(uflag eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN

width(where(xflag eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN
width=transpose(width)

aspect(where(aflag eq 0,count))=!VALUES.F_NAN
aspect=transpose(aspect)
end</FONT>
</PRE>


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