Dear @LorenzoCorgnati `feature_Type` is defined for discrete sampling geometries. That means situations where a combination of two or more continuous dimensions has been subsampled, and thus replaced with a smaller number of dimensions that index the samples. This is what the start of section 9 of the CF convention says:
> Discrete sampling geometry datasets are characterized by a dimensionality > that is lower than that of the space-time region that is sampled; discrete > sampling geometries are typically "paths" through space-time. I'm not clear exactly what you mean by "surface", but perhaps it's a horizontal surface. Gridded data on a horizontal surface has two independent dimension x and y. If these are independently sampled, meaning that there is a point for every possible combination of x and y, it's not a discrete sampling geometry, so it doesn't need a `featureType`. You can see in Table 9.1 that all the existing `featureTypes` are defined by having a particular combination of subsampled dimensions. A distinct new `featureType` would be defined in a similar way, by a combinaton of dimensions not so far represented in the table. If the idea is to use the `featureType` to indicate that the variable *isn't* a discrete sampling geometry, as @row-lowry suggests, then something more general than `surface` would be appropriate. For example, it could be permitted to specify `featureType` as a null string, to indicate that it isn't a DSG, and that would be equivalent to omitting the attribute altogether, if others agree that there is a general need for this. Jonathan -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/issues/299#issuecomment-693540587 This list forwards relevant notifications from Github. It is distinct from [email protected], although if you do nothing, a subscription to the UCAR list will result in a subscription to this list. To unsubscribe from this list only, send a message to [email protected].
