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#104: Clarify the interpretation of scalar coordinate variables
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  Reporter:  jonathan        |       Owner:  [email protected]
      Type:  enhancement     |      Status:  new                          
  Priority:  medium          |   Milestone:                               
 Component:  cf-conventions  |     Version:                               
Resolution:                  |    Keywords:                               
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Comment (by jonathan):

 Dear all

 In an email, Steve has suggested further helpful text to describe the
 problem we are trying to resolve. Here is my version of his suggestion.

 Scalar coordinate variables provide a convenient way to encode coordinate
 variables of size one. They do so by borrowing the syntax that is
 otherwise used for auxiliary coordinate variables. There is, however, a
 key difference between the interpretation of scalar coordinate variables
 and auxiliary coordinate variables. Scalar coordinates have the same
 status in a CF file as (conventional, Unidata, COARDS) coordinates in
 which the dimension name and the variable name match. These coordinates
 define the independent variables (spatiotemporal and others) for the data
 variable. Auxiliary coordinate variables provide extra information as a
 function of these independent variables, as alternative numeric values
 (which don't have to be unique or monotonic along a given dimension), or
 string-valued labels. To indicate that a variable is intended to be an
 auxiliary coordinate variable, it is necessary to give it a dimension, in
 order to show which coordinate variable(s) it belongs to. Numeric scalar
 coordinate variables are not to be interpreted as auxiliary coordinate
 variables.

 Cheers

 Jonathan

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Ticket URL: <https://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/104#comment:24>
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