New course

This is the latest (2024+) training course for the CF Data Tools, cf-python and cf-plot.

Course format

In the form of Jupyter Notebooks. At present the course only contains the core content but extension modules will be added to cover certain topics in depth and to show the libraries in real practical use cases.

The main/full course consists of (at present - to be extended in future with more specialised extension sections):

• core module with taught and practical elements of corresponding section numbers from 1 to 6:
  • six teaching Notebooks cf_data_tools_intro_0[N].ipynb for N: 1-6 of introduction, setup and six sections, designed to be lectured as a taught walkthrough interleaved with the corresponding practical sessions from the practical Notebook below after every 2-3 sections are taught, overall taking around 2 hours to teach (but can also be followed along with independently);
  • six practical Notebooks cf_data_tools_practical_0[N].ipynb for N: 1-6 with introductory context and reminders then six sections of practical questions with model answers for the sections matching the teaching Notebooks, designed to be worked through after the corresponding taught sections are presented from the above teaching Notebook (but can also be worked through independently). Model anwers are provided in the directory practicals_model_answers.

Note this material corresponds to the first trialled new course which was split into six separate Notebooks for both the taught and practical elements after attendee feedback. The old Notebooks, with all six of the same sections but in one longer Notebook for each case, are kept in old_longer_notebooks, but now deprecated.

There is also a short summary designed to be taught or worked through in around 45 minutes, which may serve as a short introducion to, or summary of, cf-python and cf-plot, though note it lifts materials from various sections of the main/full course above and therefore there is a lot of duplication:

• S1: quick_summary/cf_data_tools_summary.ipynb

Course structure

Core module:

Section	Topic	Teaching Notebook ('T*')	Corresponding practical Notebook ('P*') with model answers in practicals_model_answers
1.	Reading dataset(s) and viewing the (meta)data at different detail levels	T1: cf_data_tools_intro_01.ipynb	P1: cf_data_tools_practical_01.ipynb
2.	Editing the (meta)data and writing out the edited version to file	T2: cf_data_tools_intro_02.ipynb	P2: cf_data_tools_practical_02.ipynb
3.	Reducing datasets by subspacing and collapsing	T3: cf_data_tools_intro_03.ipynb	P3: cf_data_tools_practical_03.ipynb
4.	Visualising datasets as contour and vector plots	T4: cf_data_tools_intro_04.ipynb	P4: cf_data_tools_practical_04.ipynb
5.	Analysing data: applying operations and plotting trends	T5: cf_data_tools_intro_05.ipynb	P5: cf_data_tools_practical_05.ipynb
6.	Changing the underlying grid of data through regridding	T6: cf_data_tools_intro_06.ipynb	P6: cf_data_tools_practical_06.ipynb

Setup

As a computing environment requires (at least):

• service or server capable of running Jupyter Notebook, locally or hosted at location of choice which could be externally or in-browser;
• cf-python v. 3.16.2 or higher (latest version preferred);
• cf-plot v. 3.3.0 or higher (latest version preferred);
• Python v.3.10.0, the minimum Python version that is compatible with the above cf* minimum versions (latest stable version of Python preferred).