Dear CF, I am pleased to announce that the CF data model paper that Karl Taylor, Bryan Lawrence, Jon Blower, Jonathan Gregory and I and been working on has been through review and has now been published in Geoscientific Model Development: https://www.geosci-model-dev.net/10/4619/2017/gmd-10-4619-2017.pdf (free to download).
This paper * describes the need for a data model of CF, * summarizes netCDF and the CF-netCDF conventions at version 1.6, * proposes a CF data model for version 1.6 of the conventions, * relates this data model to other data models for geoscientific data, * discusses how the data model may evolve * demonstrates a Python implementation (cf-python v2.1) of the CF data model . If you had looked at the first, pre-review draft, there have been numerous corrections and clarifications, as well as the inclusion of the new section on data model evolution. I shall follow this up in the new year with a ticket on how this work could be formally incorporated into CF. Many thanks to you all for the long, detailed and interesting discussions that we've had on this topic over the years, all the best, David *Abstract* The CF (Climate and Forecast) metadata conventions are designed to promote the creation, processing and sharing of climate and forecasting data using Network Common Data Form (netCDF) files and libraries. The CF conventions provide a description of the physical meaning of data and of their spatial and temporal properties, but they depend on the netCDF file encoding which can currently only be fully understood and interpreted by someone familiar with the rules and relationships specified in the conventions documentation. To aid in development of CF-compliant software and to capture with a minimal set of elements all of the information contained in the CF conventions, we propose a formal data model for CF which is independent of netCDF and describes all possible CF-compliant data. Because such data will often be analysed and visualised using software based on other data models, we compare the CF data model with the ISO 19123 coverage model, the Open Geospatial Consortium CF netCDF standard and the Unidata Common Data Model. To demonstrate that the CF data model can in fact be implemented, we present cf-python, a Python software library that conforms to the model and can manipulate any CF-compliant dataset. On 20 July 2017 at 16:18, David Hassell <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > I'm pleased to announce that we (Karl Taylor, Bryan Lawrence, Jon Blower, > Jonathan Gregory and I) have submitted a paper on the CF data model to > Geoscientific Model Development (GMD), and that it is open to public > comment as part of the review process until 2017-09-04. The full manuscript > may be read, downloaded and commented on by all at > http://www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net/gmd-2017-154/ - you will need an > account, but anyone can get one and it is easy to sign up. > > We would like to encourage feedback via the GMD discussion site from all > those who wish to provide it. > > This paper > > * describes the need for a data model of CF, > * summarizes netCDF and the CF-netCDF conventions at version 1.6, > * proposes a CF data model for version 1.6 of the conventions, > * relates this data model to other data models for geoscientific data, > * demonstrates a Python implementation (cf-python v2.0) of the CF data > model. > > This work grew from the original data model proposed in trac ticket #68 > <https://cf-trac.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/68> and further discussed in > tickets #88 <https://cf-trac.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/88>, #95 > <https://cf-trac.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/95> and #107 > <https://cf-trac.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/107> - the last comment being over > three years ago, now. These discussions couldn't find enough common ground > to progress, partly because there wasn't a sufficiently comprehensive > proposal on the table at that time. We hope that this paper will address > this. > > The abstract: > > Title: A CF data model and implementation > > The CF (Climate and Forecast) metadata conventions are designed to > promote the creation, processing and sharing of climate and forecasting > data using Network Common Data Form (netCDF) files and libraries. The CF > conventions provide a description of the physical meaning of data and of > their spatial and temporal properties, but they depend on the netCDF file > encoding which can currently only be fully understood and interpreted by > someone familiar with the rules and relationships specified in the > conventions documentation. To aid in development of CF-compliant software > and to capture with a minimal set of elements all of the information > contained in the CF conventions, we propose a formal data model for CF > which is independent of netCDF and describes all possible CF-compliant > data. Because such data will often be analysed and visualised using > software based on other data models, we compare the CF data model with the > ISO 19123 coverage model, the Open Geospatial Consortium CF netCDF standard > and the Unidata Common Data Model. To demonstrate that the CF data model > can in fact be implemented, we present cf-python, a Python software library > that conforms to the model and can manipulate any CF-compliant dataset. > > > We look forward to any comments from the CF community, all the best, > > David > > > -- > David Hassell > National Centre for Atmospheric Science > Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, > Earley Gate, PO Box 243, Reading RG6 6BB > Tel: +44 118 378 5613 <+44%20118%20378%205613> > http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/ > -- David Hassell National Centre for Atmospheric Science Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 243, Reading RG6 6BB Tel: +44 118 378 5613 http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/
_______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
