Cannot find variable (z) data in netcdf

[nickywright]

GPlately seems to only read netcdfs that has its data variable called z.

E.g. I have this netcdf:

And when importing into gplately, I get:

If I then rename the variable topo to z, it all works fine:

Is there a way we can GPlately read netcdfs that do not always have 'z' as variable names?

[michaelchin]

I agree that maybe we need a better way to deal with the data variable name. See the relevant code below.

gplately/gplately/grids.py

Lines 203 to 206 in da56af8

	# possible permutations of lon/lat/z
	label_lon = ["lon", "lons", "longitude", "x", "east", "easting", "eastings"]
	label_lat = ["lat", "lats", "latitude", "y", "north", "northing", "northings"]
	label_z = ["z", "data", "values", "Band1", "__xarray_dataarray_variable__"]

[michaelchin]

also maybe consider multiple data variables

I remember I saw a netcdf file in which the data was a multiple dimension array. Need to look into the netcdf file format deeper.

[michaelchin]

This is an important issue. We need to provide a proper solution. But I have no time right now. Maybe @Hojat-Shirmard can have a look next week?

[Hojat-Shirmard]

I’d be happy if could help you with that. I’m heading to Hobart for a conference this Sunday and will be back on Monday, October 21.

[michaelchin]

I’d be happy if could help you with that. I’m heading to Hobart for a conference this Sunday and will be back on Monday, October 21.

Sure. no rush, no pressure. any time that is convenient for you. safe trip.

[michaelchin]

@nickywright

The latest master branch should work now. See the test notebook below.

https://gist.github.com/michaelchin/ef0ec6184c8195065c130050a2075c2c