[CF-metadata] Variables vs Attributes

From: NGalbraith <ngalbraith>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:02:31 -0500

Hi Jonathan -

> I think you're saying that the platform_identifier variable is
> providing global information for the file.

Yes, and I'm asking if CF requires these specific fields of
information to be supplied as global attributes, or if metadata
that describes the whole file (in my example, platform_identifier)
can just as easily be stored as a scalar parameter.

> global attributes could be used (2.6.2),
This is what I was looking for, I'm not sure why I had so much
trouble finding it. I THINK it indicates that these metadata
fields should be global attributes, not scalar parameters.


In drafting the OTS format, we agreed to conform to CF standards
and add to it for out specific implementation. The information in
the required CF globals "title, history, institution, source,
references, and comment" are included in the OTS format, however
we made a few mistakes by not using the same names and by moving
processing history to the parameter level.

In OTS, these fields (DATA_TYPE, CONVENTIONS, FORMAT_VERSION,
DATE_CREATION, DATA_RESTRICTIONS, CITATION, PLATFORM_NUMBER,
PLATFORM_NAME, PROJECT_NAME, PI_NAME, DATA_CENTRE, and DATA_MODE)
are logically global attributes, to my mind, but are being stored
as scalars only because they themselves have attributes. Those
attributes, such as long_name and convention, are already defined
by the OTS standard and should not need to be included in the data
files.

Thanks very much -
Nan

*********************************************************************
* Nan Galbraith MS 29 *
* Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, MA 02543 *
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Received on Tue Dec 14 2004 - 11:02:31 GMT