12 April 2016

Accessing RDA data files from GLADE

Do you have an account on NCAR's supercomputer, Yellowstone (or Geyser or Caldera)?  Are you eligible for an account?

If so, you can take advantage of direct access to 2.5 Petabytes (or the most popular 25%) of the RDA's data holdings on GLADE.
The Globally Accessible Data Environment—a centralized file service known as GLADE—uses high-performance GPFS shared file system technology to give users a common view of their data across the HPC, analysis, and visualization resources that CISL manages.

GLADE file spaces are intended as work areas for day-to-day tasks and are well suited for managing software projects, scripts, code, and data sets. They are available by default except for project spaces.
GLADE access allows you to perform your data analysis tasks without having to download data, a considerable time-saver. As a bonus, CISL staff install and maintain myriad data tools so you can spend more time on science and less time on sys admin tasks.

At the SEA conference last week, I discovered that many Yellowstone/GLADE users were not aware of direct GLADE data access or how to locate specific data that they need on GLADE.

When you find a data set that interests you, click on the Data Access tab.  If the dataset is available on GLADE, "GLADE File Listing" links will appear in the green columns on the right.
Then narrow down your file selection until you see individual file names.

The GLADE path to each dataset will be /glade/collections/rda/data/dsnnn.n/

Then add the path to the individual file. E.g.
/glade/collections/rda/data/ds083.2/grib2/2016/2016.03/fnl_20160301_00_00.grib2

wgrib, wgrib2 and a plethora of software for reading, manipulating and visualization of weather and climate data are already installed on Yellowstone.

Graduate students and postdocs at US universities can apply for *FREE* Small Allocation accounts.  Faculty and staff of US universities or national labs can apply for Data Access only accounts.  Check your eligibility.

This could make your research life much easier.