pydap is an implementation of the Opendap/DODS protocol, written from scratch in pure python. You can use pydap to access scientific data on the internet without having to download it; instead, you work with special array and iterable objects that download data on-the-fly as necessary, saving bandwidth and time. The module also comes with a robust-but-lightweight Opendap server, implemented as a WSGI application.

You can install the latest version using pip. After installing pip you can install pydap with this command:

    $ pip install pydap

This will install pydap together with all the required dependencies. You can now open any remotely served dataset, and pydap will download the accessed data on-the-fly as needed:

    >>> from pydap.client import open_url
    >>> dataset = open_url('http://test.opendap.org/dap/data/nc/coads_climatology.nc')
    >>> var = dataset['SST']
    >>> var.shape
    (12, 90, 180)
    >>> var.dtype
    dtype('>f4')
    >>> data = var[0,10:14,10:14]  # this will download data from the server
    >>> data
    <GridType with array 'SST' and maps 'TIME', 'COADSY', 'COADSX'>
    >>> print(data.data)
    [array([[[ -1.26285708e+00,  -9.99999979e+33,  -9.99999979e+33,
              -9.99999979e+33],
            [ -7.69166648e-01,  -7.79999971e-01,  -6.75454497e-01,
              -5.95714271e-01],
            [  1.28333330e-01,  -5.00000156e-02,  -6.36363626e-02,
              -1.41666666e-01],
            [  6.38000011e-01,   8.95384610e-01,   7.21666634e-01,
               8.10000002e-01]]], dtype=float32), array([ 366.]), array([-69., -67., -65., -63.]), array([ 41.,  43.,  45.,  47.])]

For more information, please check the documentation on using pydap as a client. pydap also comes with a simple server, implemented as a WSGI application. To use it, you first need to install the server and optionally a data handler:

    $ pip install pydap[server,handlers.netcdf]

This will install support for netCDF files; more handlers for different formats are available, if necessary. Now create a directory for your server data.

To run the server just issue the command:

    $ pydap --data ./myserver/data/ --port 8001

This will start a standalone server running on http://localhost:8001/, serving netCDF files from ./myserver/data/, similar to the test server at http://test.pydap.org/. Since the server uses the WSGI standard, it can easily be run behind Apache. The server documentation has more information on how to better deploy pydap.

For more information, see the pydap documentation.

If you need any help with pydap, please feel free to send an email to the mailing list