Support multiple NetCDF files, similar to MFDataset with netcdf4-python

[bladwig1]

Netcdf4-python allows multiple NetCDF files to be opened and treated as one big file. A user has requested the same ability for PyNIO.

[cbarrick]

xarray does this. They offer a multi-file dataset feature and can use PyNIO as a backend to open files. xarray can also use dask to stream the data from disk for out-of-core learning.

[linlintamu]

To confirm, does it mean that the current version of Nio.open_file() only support a single file open at once?

Since I have multiple monthly data spanning several years, seems I cannot open them all using Nio.open_file().

Also, though they cannot be open at once using Nio.open_file(), it is not straightforward to stack the data when I loop Nio.open_file() to read each file.

Any solutions?

Thanks

[linlintamu]

A following up question.

Even though xarray can open multiple files at once, I found that applying Ngl.vinth2p() to data opened by xarray yields unreasonable results.

Does it mean Ngl.vinth2p() should come along with data opened by Nio?

Thanks