Creating input variables NetCDF file for improved testing

[drnimbusrain]

@angehung5 Do you think you can make an input gridded, NetCDF file that is identical to the current develop input_variables.txt file?

As shown in Issue #22 , we want to also add an option in canopy-app for both inputting and outputting NetCDF gridded files to improve testing and assessment of different modules.

[angehung5]

@drnimbusrain Sure, I definitely can do that. Just to clarify, should netCDF4 file include 1D or 2D variables? Or you want to make it flexible?

[zmoon]

I would suggest making it 2-D, since that seems more natural, but maybe we can try to design so that it would be possible to load 1-D as well

[angehung5]

OK, I will generate both 1D and 2D inputs for testing, we can determine this later

[drnimbusrain]

I like this plan @angehung5 and @zmoon. The canopy-app may be mainly driven by 2D surface variables, but I can imagine there are some 1D variables that could be used.

One other thing to decide is what is our NetCDF file format/convention. We should follow some standard as best as possible for both the input and optional output NetCDF (e.g., latitude, longitude, time, height, etc.) and associated variable attributes. Maybe CF convention? https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/build/cf-standard-name-table.html

[zmoon]

Yeah for sure we should try to make nice output files, following CF, i.e. making sure all have long_name and units attrs, and adding standard_name when possible (i.e. when variable is in the standard name table). I also like adding description attr with more detailed description in some cases.

[angehung5]

yes, detailed descriptions would be helpful. I will add add them in the file.

[drnimbusrain]

@angehung5 @zmoon Closing this issue.