fix gefs on windows at some point

[sckott]

in #127 talked about gefs functions failing on windows b/c of unreadable file format - figure out a fix at some point... perhaps a fix can be made to ncdf4

cc @potterzot

[potterzot]

I did exchange a few emails with the ncdf4 developer. He's of the opinion that the error is not in ncdf4. I haven't had a chance to look into this further but it's on my list for cleanup things to do this summer.

[sckott]

thanks for update @potterzot !

[ammaratalib]

I just wanted to check again if someone fixed the this issue on windows. i am getting following error

download.NOAA_GEFS(outfolder="Working/results", lat.in= 45.805925, lon.in = -90.07961, sitename="US-WCr")

Error in ncdf4::nc_open(gefs_url) : 
  Error in nc_open trying to open file http://thredds.ucar.edu/thredds/dodsC/grib/NCEP/GEFS/Global_1p0deg_Ensemble/members/GEFS_Global_1p0deg_Ensemble_20190802_1200.grib2 

[sckott]

thanks @Wisconsin786 - but that fxn is not in this pkg - I see https://pecanproject.github.io/modules/data.atmosphere/docs/reference/download.NOAA_GEFS.html

with regard to the gefs functionality in this pkg, no, we have not figured it out on windows sadly

[sckott]

@potterzot any progress for windows?

[potterzot]

@Wisconsin786 @sckott, I wasn't able to verify the pecan error because I ran into some installation problems with that package. As far as rnoaa::gefs(), I do have access to a Windows machine through VM now, but I probably won't get the chance to revisit this for a couple of months. I've added it to my list to take a look at though.

[sckott]

thanks @potterzot - seems like egs for gefs() in the pkg no longer work either, e.g., the url generated for the eg in the docs http://thredds.ucar.edu/thredds/dodsC/grib/NCEP/GEFS/Global_1p0deg_Ensemble/members/GEFS_Global_1p0deg_Ensemble_20190804_1800.grib2 gives a 404

[sckott]

it may be a shot in the dark, but @mdsumner any ideas on gefs on windows? boils down I think to these .grib2 files not being handled by ncdf4 - there's wgrib2 cli tool, but last I checked it didn't compile on windows, and I'd rather avoid shelling out

[potterzot]

@sckott I think this is an issue with timing, but should still be addressed. I can't reproduce the 404 error using the example docs. If I run the example code

date <- format(as.Date(Sys.time()) - 1, "%Y%m%d")
var <- "Temperature_height_above_ground_ens"
gefs(var, lat, lon, date = date, forecast_time = "1800", ens_idx=2:4,
  time_idx=1:8)

It works without an issue. Can you give me a reprex?

[sckott]

ah sorry it's been a while. I was trying to construct a url from the function internals, and going to the URL for the grib file for that request gives

Error {
    code = 400;
    message = "Unrecognized request";
};

but i guess works with ncdf4::nc_open

[sckott]

i think it's fine that it just doesn't work on windows since there's so much else to do - sorry windows people