Could someone elaborate on this? The original proposal was a bit confusing,
as it proposed promoting "source/institution to a coordinate variable."
It seems that, to indicate various sources for different variables
within a file,
one would use institution as a variable attribute instead of a global.
This is
the approach that NODC has used in their new NetCDF templates. That
wouldn't
help if there were multiple sources for a single data variable - so, is
this meant
to be a 2D variable? It makes a lot of sense in that context.
I guess my confusion is with the term "coordinate variable" - will that
be part of
the definition? Does there need to be some text indicating that this should
either be dimension (1) or share a dimension with one of the coordinates?
Thanks -
Nan
There are global attribute names defined with specific meaning in 2.6.2
Description of File Contents
http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-conventions/1.5/ch02s06.html#description-of-file-contents
Specifically the names:
institution
source
It is a common operation to combine data from multiple sources/institutions
into some form of ensemble. The natural operation is to promote
source/institution to a coordinate variable.
I have seen many CF NetCDF files which are not CF compliant as they have used
source and/or institution as a standard_name for a coordinate variable.
Thus I propose that
institution
source
are added to the standard name list, with the same definition for each as is
used in 2.6.2
This will bring a common practice which I feel is logical into compliance.
On 3/29/12 8:55 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Dear All,
In September 2011 Mark Hedley proposed that the global attributes:
source
institution
should be added to the standard name
tablehttp://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/2011/027316.html.
The definitions of the standard names would be identical to those already given in section 2.6.2 of
the conventions. The reason for wanting to do this is that, in practice, many files have been
written that use "source" and "institution" as values of the standard_name
attribute although this is not CF compliant.
Jonathan supported this proposal and no objections have been received.
I also support this proposal as it will bring many currently non-compliant
files into compliance. The conventions already allow source and institution to
be assigned to individual variables, so this is a minor extension. Section
2.6.2 should probably be modified slightly to state that the variables can also
be added as string valued standard name attributes. If there are no further
comments on this proposal in the next 7 days I will accept the standard names
and open a trac ticket to modify 2.6.2 of the conventions.
Best wishes,
Alison
------
Alison Pamment Tel: +44 1235 778065
NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre Email:[email protected]
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
R25, 2.22
Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
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