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Introducing the Multidimension Supplemental tools

By Kevin Butler

The Multidimension Supplemental toolbox Version 1.1 is a collection of nine tools that extend the functionality of the core tools of the Multidimension toolbox.  These tools can be used as-is or you can modify them to handle specific use cases.  The following sections describe what each of these sample tools do.

Data access tools

Describe Multidimensional Dataset
This tool accesses a local or remote (via the OPeNDAP protocol) multidimensional file and reports the names and attributes of the variables contained in the file.  Global information about the file origin and processing history are also reported, if available.  This tool is the ArcGIS geoprocessing equivalent of the popular netCDF command line tool ncdump.

  • OPeNDAP to NetCDF
    This tool will subset and download data from web-based servers which support the OPeNDAP protocol. You can constrain which data are downloaded by specifying specific variables, a spatial extent, and starting and ending values of the dimensions which define a variable.

Layer creation tools

The core geoprocessing tools Make NetCDF Feature Layer, Make NetCDF Raster Layer, and Make NetCDF Table View were designed to provide you with the maximum flexibility for reading a broad range of netCDF formatted files.  However, providing this level of flexibility meant that the tools had to have many parameters.  These new tools are designed to provide a simpler way to access netCDF files that contain well-known geometries, such as station and trajectory data.

  • Make NetCDF Regular Points Layer
    This tool makes a point feature layer from a netCDF file which contains regularly gridded points.
  • Make NetCDF Station Points Layer
    This tool makes a point feature layer from a netCDF file which contains data from observation stations such as weather stations or fixed ocean buoys.
  • Make NetCDF Trajectory Points Layer
    This tool makes a point feature layer from a netCDF file which contains observations from moving platforms such as planes or ships.

Data analysis tools

New to version 1.1 of the toolbox are tools for statistical operations on multidimensional data.

  • Get Variable Statistics
    This tool calculates an overall statistical value, such as the mean or maximum, for a variable in a multidimensional dataset.
  • Get Variable Statistics Over Dimension
    This tool calculates statistics over a dimension of a variable in a multidimensional dataset, allowing data summarization or compositing as well as dimensionality reduction.
  • Multidimensional Zonal Statistics
    This tool calculates zonal statistics over the non-surface dimensions of a variable in a multidimensional dataset.  For example, for a variable in dimensions x, y, z, t, the tool will calculate x-y zonal statistics on each (z, t) slice of the data.  This tool is designed to work over regularly gridded netCDF data as well as select discrete sampling geometry feature types.
  • Multidimensional Zonal Statistics as Table
    This tool calculate zonal statistics over the non-surface dimensions of a variable in a multidimensional dataset and outputs the result as a table.

Downloading and installing
The Multidimension Supplemental Toolbox is available for download here:
http://esriurl.com/MultidimensionSupplementalTools

Once you’ve downloaded the file to your machine, extract the contents of the zip file.  Then, in Catalog, navigate to the location you extracted the files to. You should see installation instructions and the Python toolbox containing the Supplemental tools.
(Note that the samples are geared for ArcGIS version 10.2 and beyond.)

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