Importing NARCCAP Data into GIS

NARCCAP data is CF-compliant, and therefore can be imported directly into ArcGIS v.9.2 or higher. To import NetCDF data:

1. Download data
2. Start ArcMap
3. Open ArcToolbox Menu
4. Under "Multidimension Tools" choose "Make NetCDF Feature Layer"
5. Select the input file in the dialog
6. Choose the data variable using the "Variables" drop-down
7. Change the X Variable and Y Variable to "lon" and "lat", respectively, using the appropriate drop-downs
8. Add xc and yc under "Row Dimensions".
9. Optional: choose a timestep using the "Dimension Values" portion of the dialog. (By default, ArcGIS only reads the first timestep in the file.) While you can select a particular time this way, it will be easier and you will get better performance using other tools to process the NetCDF files to condense or extract data of interest before importing.
10. Click "OK"

Note: Currently, it's only possible to import NARCCAP data as a feature layer. A raster layer would be better, both for performance reasons and because you can do more with the data as a raster, but it requires additional metadata that has not yet been added to the data. We plan to make that addition, but are still working out the details.