MDS Technology
GRIB
GRIB (GRIdded Binary) data format was developed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide a compact and extensible means of transferring large volumes of gridded data. "Gridded data" refers to the geographical layout of the data points: the numeric values represent measurements taken at regularly-space intervals in X and Y, or latitude and longitude. GRIB is used by NCEP and NOAA to deliver their data products.
The METOC Data Server (MDS) ingests two kinds of GRIB data from NCEP: GFS and NAM. GFS covers the entire world, and NAM covers the United States at a higher resolution. MDS converts the NCEP data to MDV format, stores it on a local RAID drive, and delivers it quickly to any requesting users.MDV
MDV stands for "Meteorological Data Volume." MDV is a data format developed by NCAR's Research Applications Lab (RAL) to provide multi-dimensional access to met variables. MDV is designed for quick access to time-based data. An MDV data repository consists of a directory structure indexed by date and time, containing files that store a series of met variables sub-indexed by vertical level. This structure allows the MDV server to deliver sectional data slices to user displays such as JViz. The MDV software library also includes a large number of C++ routines to handle different mapping projections, unit conversion, and output to other data types.
