[CF-metadata] coordinates attribute

From: Schmidli Juerg <schmidli>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 18:52:11 +0200

Dear All

In the current draft, the coordinates attribute is associated with
data variable (see, for instance, the examples presented in
section 5.2, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 of the CF-conventions).

I propose to attach the coordinates attribute to the appropriate
coordinate variables and not to the data variable. For the following
reasons:

Firstly, the coordinates attribute relates to properties
of the coordinate system and not the data variable. (I guess,
for the same reason the grid_mapping properties were put together
in a grid mapping variable and not associated with the data variable).

Secondly, implementation advantages: an application can find
out the details of the coordinate system directly, by analyzing the
coordinates attribute of the coordinates variable, without having to
analyze any of the data variables.

What do you think?

Best wishes

Juerg
Received on Thu Jul 24 2003 - 10:52:11 BST