[CF-metadata] Thoughts about CF future

From: John Caron <caron>
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 11:38:52 -0700

John Caron wrote:

>>> CF has a small section about both Station and Trajectory data, that
>>> is good as far as it goes, but needs more semantics to be complete.
>>
>> In its current form it is appropriate for GCM output and hence useful
>> to the
>> standard. Could you elaborate the ways in which it is incomplete?
>
Ok, finally to elaborate on this issue a bit:

Trajectory data

If theres a single trajectory in the file, the current standard is fine.

If you want to store multiple trajectories in the file, CF doesnt
explicitly say how to do that. The obvious solution might be to add a
trajectory dimension. This has the limitation that you must store the
same number of points for each trajectory.

Station data.

The current standard has the limitation that all stations have the same
number of observations (time-series) and time coordinates. Mesonet
station data, for example, is often variable length with arbitrary time
stamps.

There is no explicitly specified way to describe station information, eg
a station id, description, etc.
Received on Mon Jun 06 2005 - 12:38:52 BST