bash - Converting longitude in NetCDF from 0:360 to -180:180 using nco - Sta... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57682977/converting-longitude-in-netcdf-...

Converting longitude in NetCDF from 0:360 to -180:180 using nco

Asked 1 year, 3 months ago Active 6 months ago Viewed 1k times

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1 of 4 12/8/20, 2:11 PM
bash - Converting longitude in NetCDF from 0:360 to -180:180 using nco - Sta... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57682977/converting-longitude-in-netcdf-...

I have two NetCDF files, each for a different period of years, that I want to concatenate. They appear to have identical structures, with time as the
unlimited dimension, except that for one, longitude is on the scale of 0:360 and for the other on the scale of -180:180.
2
This question addresses how to deal with this issue using the raster package in R, but I want to use nco.

I have found the instructions (provided below) for converting -180:180-->0:360, but am not familiar enough with the syntax to allow me to reverse the
instructions in the other direction.

Details about my NetCDF file:

netcdf soda3.3.1_1980_2015_sst {
dimensions:
depth = 1 ;
latitude = 330 ;
longitude = 720 ;
time = UNLIMITED ; // (432 currently)
variables:
float depth(depth) ;
depth:long_name = "depth" ;
depth:units = "m" ;
depth:axis = "Z" ;
float latitude(latitude) ;
latitude:long_name = "latitude" ;
latitude:units = "degrees_north" ;
latitude:axis = "Y" ;
float longitude(longitude) ;
longitude:long_name = "longitude" ;
longitude:units = "degrees_east" ;
longitude:modulo = 360.f ;
longitude:axis = "X" ;
float temp(time, depth, latitude, longitude) ;
temp:long_name = "Potential temperature" ;
temp:units = "degrees C" ;
temp:valid_range = -10.f, 500.f ;
temp:missing_value = -1.e+20f ;
temp:cell_methods = "time: mean" ;
temp:standard_name = "sea_water_potential_temperature" ;
float time(time) ;
time:long_nime = "time" ;
time:units = "month" ;

data:
longitude = 0.25, 0.75, 1.25, 1.75, 2.25, 2.75, 3.25, 3.75, 4.25, 4.75,
5.25, 5.75, 6.25, 6.75, 7.25, 7.75, 8.25, 8.75, 9.25, 9.75, 10.25, 10.75, 11.25,
11.75, 12.25, 12.75, 13.25, 13.75, 14.25, 14.75, 15.25, 15.75, 16.25, 16.75,
17.25, 17.75, 18.25, 18.75, 19.25, 19.75, 20.25, 20.75, 21.25, 21.75, 22.25,
22.75, 23.25, 23.75, 24.25, 24.75, 25.25, 25.75, 26.25, 26.75, 27.25, 27.75,
28.25, 28.75, 29.25, 29.75, 30.25, 30.75, 31.25, 31.75, 32.25, 32.75, 33.25,
33.75, 34.25, 34.75, 35.25, 35.75, 36.25, 36.75, 37.25, 37.75, 38.25, 38.75,
39.25, 39.75, 40.2
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50.25, 50.75, 51.2

2 of 4 12/8/20, 2:11 PM
bash - Converting longitude in NetCDF from 0:360 to -180:180 using nco - Sta... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57682977/converting-longitude-in-netcdf-...

Does this answer your question? How to change longitude range in a NetCDF – Adrian Tompkins Jun 3 at 10:39

3 Answers Active Oldest Votes

Good question. Try

3 ncks -O --msa -d lon,181.,360. -d lon,0.,180.0 in.nc out.nc

ncap2 -O -s 'where(lon > 180) lon=lon-360' out.nc out.nc

The first command shifts the data, the second command recalibrates the coordinate to the newly shifted data. One comment on applying this algorithm:
Be careful to specify hemispheres that do not overlap, e.g., by inadvertently specifying coordinate ranges in the first command that both include the date
line. Some users will find using index-based rather than coordinate-based hyperslabs makes this clearer. Examine a plot of the field to make sure your
rotation was correct.

answered Aug 28 '19 at 17:52

Charlie Zender
4,236 10 18

If the fields are global you can convert from 0-360 to -180,180 with

5 cdo sellonlatbox,-180,180,-90,90 in.nc out.nc

and to convert the other way:

cdo sellonlatbox,0,360,-90,90 in.nc out.nc

No interpolation is involved, it should simply change the lon coordinate.

answered Aug 28 '19 at 6:58

Adrian Tompkins
3,751 1 17 51

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3 of 4 12/8/20, 2:11 PM
bash - Converting longitude in NetCDF from 0:360 to -180:180 using nco - Sta... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57682977/converting-longitude-in-netcdf-...

this behaviour seems to me very counter-intuitive...so CDO automatically converts from 0-360 to -180,180? I would expect that a function for selection (as sellonlatbox)
would "just" select and not change any coordinate...do you know the rationale behind this? – Matteo De Felice Aug 28 '19 at 14:02

CDO doesn't automatically convert to -180,180, only if you specify this in the command line, if the input file was defined 0,360 and you type sellonlatbox,0,360,-90,90 then
the output file will be identical. – Adrian Tompkins Sep 7 '19 at 18:13

I solved a similar problem in CDO by setting the grid of one data to the other. For instance, if you want both files to have the same -180:180 notation,
then try this:
1
cdo setgrid,file_with_-180:180_grid.nc file_with_0-360_grid.nc new_file.nc

edited May 19 at 13:20 answered May 19 at 13:13

Jacob Zora-Oni
11 2

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