Hi Andrew,
  Either way it should be okay as far as CF compliance is concerned. But
the dimensions - latitude, longitude and time are not really required.  If
it is required to indicate that there is only one station(profile) in the
file, there could be a dimension for number of stations instead, with a
value of 1. Also, using a station dimension is the way to go if storing a
collection of profiles in a single file. Here at NODC, we took the approach
that we would use the same consistent representation whether there is a
single instance or a collection in a file.

Upendra




On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:51 AM, andrew walsh <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi CF lis
> We are working on coding up some 1000's netCDF files off CTD
> instruments and want to make usre we are following the
> latest netCDF conventions (v1.6) OK. As background the CTD records
> a profile pressure, temperature and salinity.
>
> Here is a summarised CDL version (not all attributes+variables+qc flags
> there, just majors for now)
> of what we propose:
>
> dimensions:
> TIME=1
> PRESSURE=729
> LATITUDE=1
> LONGITUDE=1
>
> variables:
> double TIME(TIME) ;
>  TIME:standard_name = "time" ;
>  TIME:units = "days since 1950-01-01 00:00:00Z" ;
>  TIME:axis = "T" ;
>  TIME:valid_min = 0. ;
>  TIME:valid_max = 999999. ;
>
> double LATITUDE(LATITUDE) ;
>  LATITUDE:standard_name = "latitude" ;
>  LATITUDE:units = "degrees_north" ;
>  LATITUDE:axis = "Y" ;
>  LATITUDE:valid_min = -90. ;
>  LATITUDE:valid_max = 90. ;
>
>  double LONGITUDE(LONGITUDE) ;
>  LONGITUDE:standard_name = "longitude" ;
>  LONGITUDE:units = "degrees_east" ;
>  LONGITUDE:axis = "X" ;
>  LONGITUDE:valid_min = -180. ;
>  LONGITUDE:valid_max = 180. ;
>
>  double PRESSURE(PRESSURE) ;
>  PRESSURE:standard_name = "sea_water_pressure" ;
>  PRESSURE:units = "decibars" ;
>  PRESSURE:axis = "Z" ;
>  PRESSURE:valid_min = 0. ;
> PRESSURE:valid_max = 12000. ;
>  PRESSURE:positive = "down" ;
>
> double TEMPERATURE(PRESSURE) ;
>  TEMPERATURE:standard_name = "sea_water_temperature" ;
>  TEMPERATURE:units = "degrees_C" ;
>  TEMPERATURE:_FillValue = -99.99 ;
>  TEMPERATURE:valid_min = -2. ;
>  TEMPERATURE:valid_max = 40. ;
> TEMPERATURE:coordinates="TIME LATITUDE LONGITUDE PRESSURE"
>
>  double SALINITY(PRESSURE) ;
>  SALINITY:standard_name = "sea_water_salinity" ;
>  SALINITY:units = "psu" ;
>  SALINITY:_FillValue = -99.99 ;
>  SALINITY:valid_min = 0. ;
>  SALINITY:valid_max = 40. ;
> SALINITY:coordinates="TIME LATITUDE LONGITUDE PRESSURE"
>
> // global attributes:
>  :conventions = "CF-1.6" ;
>  :featureType = "profile"
>  :cdm_data_type = "profile"
> + several other attributes later for ISO19115 metadata generation
>
> I am not sure  if I should have TEMPERATURE and SALINITY arrays with 4
> dimensions
> like TEMPERATURE(TIME,LATITUDE,**LONGITUDE,PRESSURE) or just 1 dimension
> like I have above i.e. TEMPERATURE(PRESSURE). ?
>
> Any feedback on the above is greatly appreciated.
>
> Andrew Walsh
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>
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