5. Getting file informationΒΆ

The info command provides a visual summary of the data within any of the data files CIS supports.

To get this summary, run a command of the format:

$ cis info <datagroup> [--type ["VD" | "SD"]]

where:

<datagroup>

is a CIS datagroup specifying the variables and files to read and is of the format [<variable>...:]<filename>[:product=<productname>] where:

  • variable is an optional variable or list of variables to use.
  • filenames is a mandatory file or list of files to read from.
  • product is an optional CIS data product to use (see Data Products):

Note that the product can only be specified if a variable is specified. See Datagroups for a more detailed explanation of datagroups.

--type allows the user to list only SD or VD variables from an HDF file, the default is All

Running without a variable ($ cis info <filenames>) will print a list of the variables available in those files such as:

Trop
latitude
longitude_1
surface
unspecified_1
level6
ht
msl
latitude_1

To get more specific information about one or more variables in those files, simply pass those as well:

$ cis info var1,var2:<filenames>

where $var1 and $var2 are the names of the variables to get the information for.

Here is an example output:

Ungridded data: SO4 / (ug m-3)
     Shape = (6478,)
     Total number of points = 6478
     Number of non-masked points = 6478
     Long name = Sulphate
     Standard name = SO4
     Units = ug m-3
     Missing value = -9999
     Range = (-0.57346399999999997, 7.0020300000000004)
     History =
     Coordinates:
       time
          Long name = Starting time
          Standard name = time
          Units = days since 1600-01-01 00:00:00
          Calendar = gregorian
          Missing value = -9999
          Range = ('2008-07-10 02:04:35', '2008-07-20 09:50:33')
          History =
       latitude
          Long name = Latitude
          Standard name = latitude
          Units = N degree
          Missing value = -9999
          Range = (4.0211802, 7.14886)
          History =
       longitude
          Long name = Longitude
          Standard name = longitude
          Units = E degree
          Missing value = -9999
          Range = (114.439, 119.733)
          History =
       altitude
          Long name = Altitude
          Standard name = altitude
          Units = m
          Missing value = -9999
          Range = (51.164299, 6532.6401)
          History =