NEWS.md

In ncdfCF: Easy Access to NetCDF Files with CF Metadata Conventions

ncdfCF 0.7.0

This is a major restructuring of the code logic to better separate between file-based netCDF objects and in-memory CF objects. Additionally, there are important additions to the user-facing API, in particular with regards to arithmetic, math and logical expressions on CF objects.

Conventions

• CFAxisVertical can now calculate parametric coordinates for two ocean formulations (other formulations will be added as sample data becomes available to test new code on - open an issue if you have such data and are looking for support). Optional use of the units package to deal with the various pressure units. This package is recommended if you work with data on the atmosphere or the ocean.
• Boundary variables can have attributes.
• The standard names table of the CF Metadata Conventions is now accessible. The table is automatically downloaded and made available when first used; it will not be downloaded or loaded into memory when not accessed. Find standard names using the CF$standard_names$find() method. The table (currently 4.3MB) will be stored in the local cache of the ncdfCF package and periodically updated with the latest version.

API

• The CFArray class has been merged with CFVariable. This makes for more concise code and easier combination of multiple operations on a single netCDF resource. All functionality remains.
• With the as_CF() function you can create a CFVariable instance from an R object such as a vector, matrix or array using logical, integer, double or character mode. Axes are created from dimnames, using names when set (such as in dimnames(arr) <- list(X = 40:43, Y = 50:54, Z = 60:65)) and possibly with latitude, longitude and time axes generated.
• Functions from the Ops and Math groups of S3 generic functions are now supported. This means that expressions can be written directly on CFVariable instances.
• All CFAxis descendant classes now have a copy() method which creates a deep copy of the axis and a copy_with_values() method that makes a copy of the current axis but with new values.
• All CF objects that derive from a CF object read from file have access to the file as long as the data is not modified. Thus in statement axisB <- axisA$copy(), the new axisB instance will have file access (assuming that axisA has it too). Same with CFVariable$$subset() and $profile(). CFVariable$summarise() does not retain access because the array values are modified. Math and Ops function results likewise do not retain file access.
• New CFAxis$coordinate_range field to retrieve the range of the coordinates of the axis.
• Names of CF objects (variables, axes, etc) can be modified. Strict checking of allowable names (i.e. only letters, numbers and underscores).

Code

• Dependency on R bumped from version 3.5 to 4.0.
• Axis names in new groups are ensured to be unique after subsetting, profiling, etc.
• Fully-qualified names of groups generated on-the-fly.
• Correctly link multiple cell measure variables.
• Write labels for data variables to file.
• Disentangling CF objects from the NC hierarchy. The NC hierarchy represents what is on file, the CF objects are mutable. Attributes are now managed in CFObject, those in NCObject are read from file and immutable.
• Class CFVariable has absorbed classes CFArray and CFVariableBase.
• Several minor improvements and code fixes.
• Documentation updated.

ncdfCF 0.6.1

• ncdfCF is now hosted on Github through the R-CF organization: all things related to the CF Metadata Conventions in R.
• CFArray$new() writes coordinates attribute for scalar axes.
• Set boundary values on lat-long grids warped from auxiliary grids.
• Fixed profiling on a "time" axis and writing boundary values to file, with regular or "climatology" bounds.
• Fixed subsetting on multiple character labels from a label set.
• Testing added. This is rather bare-bones because the netCDF files that are bundled with the package are necessarily small. Much more testing is done locally on a large set of production netCDF files.

ncdfCF 0.6.0

• New profile() method for CFVariable and CFArray. With this method profiles can be extracted from the data, having a user-selectable dimensionality and location. Examples are temporal profiles at a given location or a zonal (lat or long) vertical profile of the atmosphere, but there are many other options. Multiple profiles can be extracted in a single call and they can be generated as a list of CFArray instances or as a single data.table.
• New append() method for CFArray. With this method you can append a CFArray instance to another CFArray instance, along a single, selectable axis with all other axes being identical. This is especially useful to append time series data spread over multiple files, as is often the case with CMIP data. Given the large size of many such files, it is often necessary to subset() the data variable first before appending.
• subset() method signature changed to have similar signature as the new profile() method.
• indexOf() method on axes is using boundary values consistently.
• CFObject and descendants take group field from NCVariable instance.
• Fixed creating a scalar time axis from a longer time axis when doing e.g. CFVariable$subset(time = "2025-04-17").
• Scalar axes are now implemented as an axis of a specific type with length 1.
• Fix label set references when multiple variables share an axis with label sets associated with it.
• Minor code fixes.

ncdfCF 0.5.0

• Cell measure variables fully supported. External variables can be linked and are then automatically available to referring data variables.
• Writing a CFArray instance to file automatically orients the data into the canonical axis order of X - Y - Z - T - others.
• CFAxis has several methods added to work with multiple sets of auxiliary coordinates associated with the axis.
• CFLabel has print() and write() methods.
• CFVariable::subset() can subset over a discrete axis with auxiliary coordinates.
• summarise() can now summarise over eras. This yields a climatological statistic which is now supported with the appropriate "time" axis description.
• actual_range attribute is set on data arrays, axes and bounds.
• Added CFDataset$var_names and CFDataset$axis_names fields.
• Check for duplicate object names at group level added.
• Axis values fields made private. Read-only access provided throughCFAxis$values and CFAxis$coordinates (preferred) for consistent access patterns throughout the axis class hierarchy.
• Root group can print() without enclosing data set.
• Fixed summarise() when temporal result yields scalar time axis.
• Fixed writing bounds for a "time" axis.
• Fixed saving a packed CFArray when the original netCDF file was packed as well.
• Minor code fixes.
• Documentation updates.

ncdfCF 0.4.0

• CFData has been renamed CFArray to more accurately describe its contents.
• CFArray objects can now be written to a netCDF file.
• Methods CFVariable$summarise() and CFArray$summarise() summarise the temporal dimension of a data object to a lower resolution using a user-supplied function, using the specific calendar of the temporal dimension and returning a new CFArray object with the summarised data for every return value of a call to the function, i.e. the function may have multiple return values. The CFArray version is much faster (because all data has been read already), but the CFVariable version can also summarise data variables that are too big to fit into the available memory entirely. In either case, code is optimized compared to the R base version so an operation over the "time" dimension of a data array is about twice as fast as using the base R apply(X, MARGIN, tapply, INDEX, FUN, ...) call.
• Method CFArray$data.table() exports a data object to a data.table.
• CFVariable and CFArray classes now have time() method to retrieve the "time" axis or its CFTime instance, if present.
• CFAxis has new coordinates field with which to retrieve the coordinates along the axis.
• New attributes can be defined on any object that supports attributes, or deleted.
• Fixed error on reading bounds for auxiliary coordinate variables. Various other minor code fixes.
• CFResource fixed to conform to new R6 version.
• Documentation updated, including vignettes.

ncdfCF 0.3.0

• Function peek_ncdf() returns quick-view information on a netCDF resource.
• String-valued labels for discrete and generic numeric axes are now supported, including multiple label sets per axis. The labels are associated with an axis rather than a data variable (as the CF documents imply) and the axis must be explicitly defined (as the CF documents imply but not explicitly state, and it is missing from the example given).
• Functions makeMemoryGroup(), makeLongitudeAxis() and makeLatitudeAxis() added to create scaffolding for new CF objects.
• NCGroup::unused() method identifies unused NCVariables to aid in finding issues with netCDF resources.
• print() method for NCVariable and NCDimension.
• Method CFObject$fullname added, giving fully-qualified CF object name.
• "Axis" associated with bounds variable is no longer created.
• NASA level-3 binned data (L3b) is now supported.
• Reference to a containing NCGroup moved down to CFObject for CF objects.
• Minor code fixes.
• Documentation extended and formatting fixed, new vignette.

ncdfCF 0.2.1

• NetCDF groups are now fully supported, including traversing group hierarchies with absolute or relative paths.
• All axis types are identified correctly. This includes:
• Regular coordinate axes (a.k.a. NUG coordinate variables).
• Discrete axes, even when no coordinate variable is present - an extension to the CF conventions.
• Parametric vertical axes, but values are not yet computed.
• Scalar axes, linked to variables through the "coordinates" attribute of the latter.
• Auxiliary longitude-latitude grids, the horizontal component of the grid of a variable that was not defined as a Cartesian product of latitude and longitude, using the "coordinates" attribute of the variable. When subsetting a data variable, resampling is automatically performed.
• The four axes that "receive special treatment" by the Conventions each have a separate class to deal with their specific nature: CFAxisLongitude, CFAxisLatitude, CFAxisVertical, and CFAxisTime.
• Bounds are read and interpreted on all axes except the vertical axis, including any auxiliary long-lat grids.
• Information on UDTs is captured in a separate class. This is effectively only supported for the "compound" sub-type, for scalar values only.
• Data is read into the most compact form possible. This saves a significant amount of memory when large integer variables are read as they would remain integers rather than the default numeric type.
• Data is returned from CFVariable$subset() as an instance of the CFData class, with associated objects such as axes and the attributes from the variable. Data can be read out in a variety of forms, currently as a raw array, an oriented array or as a terra::SpatRaster or terra::SpatRasterDataset.
• Full support for grid mapping variables. As a significant extension over CF Metadata requirements, CRS strings are produced in the OGC WKT2 format, using the latest EPSG database of geodetic objects.
• Improvements in printing object details.
• Code refactored to R6.
• GHA enabled

ncdfCF 0.1.1

• objects_by_standard_name() will list objects in the netCDF resource that have a "standard_name" attribute.

ncdfCF 0.1.0

• Initial CRAN submission. This is a WORK IN PROGRESS and the package is not yet fit for a production environment.
• This version supports reading from netCDF resources. CF Metadata Conventions are used to set properties on axis orientation, time dimensions and bounds.
• Standard R commands can be used to inspect properties of the netCDF resource, such as dimnames() and length().
• Access to data uses the R standard [ selection operator for use with dimension indices. Use real-world coordinates with subset().

ncdfCF documentation built on Sept. 13, 2025, 5:07 p.m.