NCO For Linux

NCO (The netCDF Operators) are a suite of programs known as operators. Each operator is a standalone, command line program which is executed at the UNIX shell-level like, e.g., ls or mkdir. The operators take netCDF files as input, then perform a set of operations (e.g., deriving new data, averaging, hyperslabbing, or metadata manipulation) and produce a netCDF file as output. The operators are primarily designed to aid manipulation and analysis of gridded scientific data.

The single command style of NCO allows users to manipulate and analyze files interactively and with simple scripts, avoiding the overhead (and some of the power) of a higher level programming environment. The NCO User's Guide illustrates their use with examples from the field of climate modeling and analysis. Note that the "averagers" are misnamed because they perform many non-linear operations as well, e.g., total, minimum, maximum, RMS:

- ncap and ncap2 netCDF Arithmetic Processors - ncatted netCDF Attribute Editor - ncbo netCDF Binary Operator (includes ncadd, ncsubtract, ncmultiply, ncdivide) - ncea netCDF Ensemble Averager - ncecat netCDF Ensemble Concatenator - ncflint netCDF File Interpolator - ncks netCDF Kitchen Sink - ncpdq netCDF Permute Dimensions Quickly, Pack Data Quietly - ncra netCDF Record Averager - ncrcat netCDF Record Concatenator - ncrename netCDF Renamer - ncwa netCDF Weighted Averager

The operators are as general as netCDF itself: there are no restrictions on the contents of the netCDF file(s) used as input. NCO's internal routines are completely dynamic and impose no limit on the number or sizes of dimensions, variables, and files. NCO is designed to be used both interactively and with large batch jobs.

The default operator behavior is often sufficient for everyday needs, and there are numerous command line (i.e., run-time) options, for special cases. NCO works well on all modern operating systems, including: Apple OS X, *BSD, Cray UNICOS, DEC Tru64, IBM AIX, HPUX, Linux, Microsoft Windows, NEC Super UX, SGI IRIX, and Sun Solaris.