IDL and NetCDF

["Claus Sølvsteen" <cls(at)fomfrv.dk>]

Is there anyone out there who knows about  using NetCDF in IDL programming -
or knows anybody who does?
I have recently started using this, and my problems are not answered
entirely from the IDL online manuals and the "basic" NetCDF homepage,
www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf
For instance, I am in doubt about 1) how do I use (and when should I use)
unlimited variables, 2) is it possible to use structures as variables, and
3) how do I most properly create my program so that it is easily seen which
variables belong together?
I have a long set of observations of radar altimetry measurements og
significant wave heights and wind speeds. So all measurements are acquired
at different times. One measurement consists of  information about
acquisition time (year, month, day, decimal hour), lat/lon, SWH, rms of SWH
measurement, wind speed and others). Note that some variables are integers,
some are doubles/floats - so I cannot just make a DblArr consisting all
measurements.
A file consists of several repeated tracks/cycles and the measurements have
been put into a grid - therefore several measurements within a file may
belong to a certain grid point though their acquisition times are different.
On the other hand, for some grid points there may be no data.
I hope that someone can help me.

Best regards,
Claus Sølvsteen



Claus Sølvsteen, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Oceanographic Department, Remote Sensing
Royal Danish Administration of Navigation and Hydrography
Overgaden oven Vandet 62B
1023 Copenhagen K
Denmark

Phone:   +45 32 68 96 25
Fax:       +45 32 57 43 41
E-mail:    cls@fomfrv.dk