DESCRIPTION

    This utility reads NetCDF or GRIB files, and converts the grids into individual
    ESRI FLT files for use within HEC-MetVue. Data from files are extracted
    for each time step and layer. Output files are named based on the following
    convention: VariableName_Tttt_Llll.flt, where ttt is the time step index and
    lll is the layer number index.

USAGE

    NCGribExtractor [ -info filename] |
                                                            [ (-inputFile filename) 
                                                              [-variable (variableName | ?) ] 
                                                              [-layer layerNumber] 
                                                              [-rateToDepth
                                                              [-duration] 
                                                              [-outputDirectory directory] ]


OPTIONS

    -info filename

        Information about the contents of the file will be printed to the console

    -inputFile filename

        The filename to process

    -variable variableName | ?

        variableName: The long name of the variable, or the variable name if long name 
        isn't specified, for the variable to be selected. 

        Or

        ?:  Listing of the available variables will be printed to
        the console.

        If the -variable argument is not specified, then all variables will be read. 

    -layer layerNumber

        The index of the layer to be read. The layer is considered to be the
        dimension that is neither the x, y, or time dimension of the variable.
        If not specified, all layers will be read.

    -rateToDepth

        This argument specifies that any precipitation rate variables will be
        converted to depths. If the target variable only has one time-step,
        the -duration argument is required to perform this conversion.

    -duration

        This argument specifies the duration for which the precipitation rate applies.
        This duration is multiplied by the precipitation rate to create a depth.
        This argument is used in conjunction with the -rateToDepth argument, but
        is only required when the target variable has a single time-step. If the target
        variable has multiple time steps, and -duration is not specified,
        the duration is estimated as the interval between time steps.
        Refer to Command Line Time Specifications for acceptable durations syntax.

    -outputDirectory directory

        The output directory to save the extracted grids into. If not specified,
        the files will be saved into a directory within the input file's
        directory, where the directory name matches the filename.
            Example: "NCGribExtractor -inputFile C:\\MyFile.nc -variable variableName"
                would extract the data to C:\\MyFile\variableName_Tttt_Llll.flt

SAMPLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

    NCGribExtractor -inputfile NLDAS.grb -variable "Soil Moisture Content @ Layer between 2 depths below land surface layer" -layer 4 -outputdirectory NLDAS_SM

    NCGribExtractor -inputfile HRRR.grib2 -variable "Precipitation rate @ Ground or water surface" -outputdirectory HRRR_PR

    NCGribExtractor -inputfile HRRR.grib2 -variable "Precipitation rate @ Ground or water surface" -rateToDepth -outputdirectory HRRR_PR

NOTE ON PERFORMANCE

   This program may utilize a significant amount of memory depending on datasets specified.
   For extra intensive data operations, it may be necessary to increase the memory allocated
   to the jvm. This can be performed by setting the -Xmx argument, which can be altered
   easily in the "memory_setting" variable in the NCGribExtractor.cmd example file provided.