NetCDF Conversion

Almost all of the files offered by Mirador are in HDF (Hierarchical Definition Format). Several collections may be converted into NetCDF format:

AIRX3STD.003 AIRX3STD.005 AIRX3ST8.003 AIRX3STM.003
AIRH3STD.003 AIRH3ST8.003 AIRH3STM.003 AIRX3ST8.005
AIRX3STM.005 AIRH3STD.005 AIRH3ST8.005 AIRH3STM.005
OMUVBL3.002 OMTO3D.002 OMTO3E.002 OMNO2E.002
TOMSN7L3.008 TOMSEPL3.008 TOMSM3L3.008 AIRX2RET.005

Mirador offers two paths from the Cart page to accomplish this:

  1. To download all files in the cart including the ones you wish to convert:
    1. Click the button on the cart page.
    2. Select which collections of those offered, to convert and hit the button
    3. On the next page go ahead and click the button (as there are no parameters for this service)
    4. When it is done it will take you to the download page which will give you several options for you to download your files.
  2. To download only the collection that you wish to convert, select the button next to the collection. When it is done it will take you to the download page which will give you several options to download only those files to be converted. (The conversion will happen as you download the files)

Time Coverage Display

Mirador’s new time coverage display may be view on the page which shows the list of collections (the 2nd page). There is a yellow bar near the top with a Click Here link. This page shows file availability of the collections from the displayed collection list page. Yellow is available, Black is unavailable. The display may be ‘zoomed’ by shortening the slider at the top of the page and the time range shown may be adjusted by moving the slider back and forth. Granules may also be added to the cart directly from this page through the button for each collection.

Download Options

Now, Mirador offers five methods to download data.

  1. JDataDownloader - is a platform independent HTTP and FTP client. Its main function is the data transfer between a remote and a local computer. By default it runs in graphical mode. Optionally, it can be run in a non-interactive mode. In the graphical mode, the user can monitor the progress of data transfer and control (pause and resume) data transfer. It requires the Java 1.4.2 or higher be installed on the user's computer. Check whether Java is installed on your computer.

  2. wget – wget is a utility which will download any URL with any protocol (HTTP, FTP etc). We provide a script which may be copied to a users machine and used for batch downloading with wget.

  3. On the fly tar – Users can download all selected data from a given host as a single tar file. This option is not available with NetCDF and subsetting services.

  4. FTP Batch Script – This is a script which may be copied to the users machine and used as an input script to an ftp command. This has been the default offering from Mirador to date.

  5. Down_Them_All – There is a Mozilla/Firefox plug-in which allows users to download all links on the page. A dialog box appears with a list of links to download. The dialog box offers a variety of ways to filter which links are downloaded so that only files with a particulare suffix, for example, will be downloaded and not arbitrary web pages mentioned on the page. So, here Mirador displays the items from the cart as a list of links.

Simpler File Names

The actual filenames are show as default but Mirador’s new Simpler, Consistent filenames may be displayed using the Descriptive Filenames checkbox on the file listing page. The files may be downloaded to your local machine with these names also by selecting the w/ Descriptive Filenames checkbox on the Cart page.