Merge pull request #276 from jrleeman/mapes_about

Add about notebooks

Author: dopplershift

ideas.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-- xray
+- xarray
 - GIS
   - Expand on some of the more interesting aspects of what we do in the cartopy tutorial
   - Fun things that can be done with Shapely

notebooks/ABOUT_THESE_NOTEBOOKS.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# Suggestions for exploring the notebook collection
+
+Each notebook is a self-contained document, and they can be explored in any order.  But their real power is as a set of resources you can adjust and adapt. Once you understand them, you can learn to mix-and-match the examples demonstrated here to construct your own notebooks. 
+
+A few suggestions for possible user approaches are offered here. A complete listing can be found at the bottom. 
+
+--------------
+## Beginner's approach
+
+A good place to start is on Jupyter itself, from the **Jupyter_Notebooks** folder. 
+  - Jupyter's own Help menu is excellent. Be sure to notice its features.
+  - For Python code, notice the power of 
+    - _tab_ key for autocomplete suggestions after a period . showing an object's _attributes and methods_
+    - _shift + tab_ keys for documentation on any object whose name the cursor is placed within
+
+**Primer** notebooks are oriented to beginners.
+
+**Pythonic_Data_Analysis** and **Time_Series_Analysis** are good early lessons on code-to-figures workflow. 
+
+**Bonus/What to do when things go wrong.ipynb** can help users throughout their journey. 
+
+For meteorology work, get oriented with **Metpy_Introduction/Introduction to MetPy.ipynb**
+
+
+--------------
+## Building your own analyses: suggestions organized by workflow stages
+
+### Inputting data
+  - Basic text data
+    - Pythonic_Data_Analysis
+ 
+  - NetCDF files
+    - netCDF/netCDF-Reading.ipynb
+
+  - Meteorology grids and streams
+    - Siphon/Siphon Overview.ipynb
+    - Bonus/Downloading GFS with Siphon.ipynb
+    - Bonus/Siphon_XARRAY_Cartopy_HRRR.ipynb
+    - Model_Output/Downloading model fields with NCSS.ipynb
+    - Satellite_Data/Working with Satellite Data.ipynb
+
+  - Weather observations
+    - Skew_T/Upper Air and the Skew-T Log-P.ipynb
+    - Surface_Data/Surface Data with Siphon and MetPy.ipynb
+
+### Analysis: derived quantities and statistical summarizations
+
+  - NumPy/Numpy Basics.ipynb and NumPy/Intermediate Numpy.ipynb
+  - Primer/Numpy and Matplotlib Basics.ipynb
+
+### Graphical outputs: 
+
+  - Animation/Creating Animations.ipynb
+  - CartoPy/CartoPy.ipynb
+  - GOES_RGB_Demo/GOES_RGB_Image.ipynb
+  - Matplotlib/Matplotlib Basics.ipynb
+  - Satellite_Data/GOES_Interactive_Plot.ipynb
+  - Skew_T/Upper Air and the Skew-T Log-P.ipynb
+
+### File outputs
+  - netCDF/netCDF-Writing.ipynb
+