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MATLAB OPeNDAP Ocean Toolbox

This toolbox provides users with access to a number of ocean data sets via OPeNDAP. The strength of these GUIs is that they expose complicated data sets (often multi-variable, multi-file data sets spread over a number of directories) in an easy to use interface. It allows the user to request only the subset of data -- parameters, spatial and temporal range and resolution -- relevant to his or her needs. The GUIs follow a similar format so that once a user is familiar with one, the others are straightforward to use. Each of the GUIs calls a function that configures the OPeNDAP request and reformats the returned data stream. The user can either have the data returned in OPeNDAP (a MATLAB structure) or NetCDF mode. These functions can also be called directly from the user's scripts, by-passing the actual GUI if the user wants scripted access to the data. To get started, you will need to download the Toolbox onto your system.

Download (Version 3.1.2*)

The MATLAB OPeNDAP Ocean Toolbox is chip, system and MATLAB specific. To use the Toolbox, the user must have MATLAB 7.4 (R2007b) or higher. R2009a and higher are currently supported only for win32 and mac-intel architectures. Please select one of the following packages to download the Toolbox:

Mac OS X (Intel)       Mac OS X (PPC)       Windows XP/Vista     
Linux (i386)       Linux (x86_64)

The packaging of the above files is somewhat different than our previous releases. In this new format the OPeNDAP client for MATLAB is included as a separate file from the MATLAB software. We hope this gives the user greater control during the installation process while retaining the ease of installation found in previous versions. In addition, it should speed the release of new data sets and updates to the software.

Important change in this release* is that the OPeNDAP structure is now compliant with the NetCDF and Conventions for Climate and Forecast (CF).

If you already installed MATLAB Ocean Toolbox earlier, you may wish to download the latest version of the source code at the link below. You do not need to reinstall loaddap-libdap. Just extract the zip file and overwrite the older files.

Ocean Toolbox MATLAB Code      

*Released 2009-12-10.

Compiled Toolbox

For users who don't have MATLAB we provide a compiled version of the toolbox. It allows a user to download and save data as a sequence of NetCDF files. In order to run the compiled version a user first has to download and install MATLAB Component Runtime (MCR), which is freely available, though it is a large file about 200MB. If you don't have MCR on your system already, please select MCRInstaller (below) according to your computer architecture. We compiled the toolbox with MATLAB R2008b and provide MCR that comes with R2008b:

Mac OS X (Intel):MCRInstaller       Windows XP/Vista:MCRInstaller     
Please select a compiled version of the Toolbox according to your computer architecture:

Mac OS X (Intel):Toolbox       Windows XP/Vista:Toolbox     

Currently only Mac OS X (Intel) and WindowsXP/Vista versions are uploaded here. Other architectures will appear soon.

The MATLAB OPeNDAP Ocean Toolbox includes GUIs for all the following data collections. The individual links below will provide more detailed descriptions and information for each of the data sets.

Sea Surface Temperature

Surface Winds

Ocean Color

Other Surface Parameters

Model Output

Other


User List, Updates and More ...

If you wish to be notified of future updates to the Toolbox, which would include new features and additional data sets, please send an e-mail to Peter Cornillon with your name, email address and data set of interest at pcornillon@gso.uri.edu. If you have any problems installing any of the software or tools presented here please contact us at support@opendap.org.