diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9b6e850..be20c38 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-build
+build/
 .vscode
-data
\ No newline at end of file
+data/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/build/main b/build/main
deleted file mode 100755
index 4093b44..0000000
Binary files a/build/main and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/build/main.o b/build/main.o
deleted file mode 100644
index d5059a5..0000000
Binary files a/build/main.o and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/src/hurricanedata/datareader.cu b/src/hurricanedata/datareader.cu
index 6052937..ed0c5ce 100644
--- a/src/hurricanedata/datareader.cu
+++ b/src/hurricanedata/datareader.cu
@@ -22,4 +22,33 @@ std::vector<float> readData(std::string path, std::string variableName) {
     var.getVar(vec.data());
 
     return vec;
+}
+
+struct cudaArray* loadDataToDevice(std::string path, std::string variableName) {
+    netCDF::NcFile data(path, netCDF::NcFile::read);
+
+    multimap<string, NcVar> vars = data.getVars();
+
+    NcVar var = vars.find(variableName)->second;   
+
+    struct cudaChannelFormatDesc arrayType = {
+        .x = 32,
+        .y = 0,
+        .z = 0,
+        .w = 0,
+        .f = cudaChannelFormatKindFloat
+    }; // Float-32
+    
+    struct cudaExtent extent = {
+        .width = var.getDim(3).getSize(), // longitude
+        .height = var.getDim(2).getSize(), // latitude
+        .depth = var.getDim(1).getSize(), // level
+    };
+
+    struct cudaArray *array;
+
+    cudaError_t error = cudaMalloc3DArray(&array, &arrayType, extent, 0);
+    cout << "cuda error: " << error << "\n";
+
+    return array;
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/hurricanedata/datareader.h b/src/hurricanedata/datareader.h
index 7e628cc..d7e3733 100644
--- a/src/hurricanedata/datareader.h
+++ b/src/hurricanedata/datareader.h
@@ -5,5 +5,6 @@
 #include <string>
 
 std::vector<float> readData(std::string path, std::string variableName);
+struct cudaArray* loadDataToDevice(std::string path, std::string variableName);
 
 #endif //DATAREADER_H
diff --git a/src/main.cu b/src/main.cu
index 2d27d29..f472f37 100644
--- a/src/main.cu
+++ b/src/main.cu
@@ -8,15 +8,8 @@
 int main() {
     std::string path = "data/MERRA2_400.inst6_3d_ana_Np.20120101.nc4";
     std::string variable = "U";
-    auto x = readData(path, variable);
-
-    // Print some values from the file to see that it worked
-    int num = 0;
-    for(int i = 0; i < x.size(); i++) {
-        if (x[i] < 1E14) std::cout << x[i] << "\n";
-        if(num > 10000) break;
-        num++;
-    }
+    auto arr = loadDataToDevice(path, variable);
+    cudaFreeArray(arr);
 
     return 0;
 }