[CF-metadata] ensemble dimension

From: John Caron <caron>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:44:20 -0600

On 3/16/2010 11:22 AM, Jonathan Gregory wrote:
> Dear John
>
>
>> Im not sure if we ever converged on how to write ensemble files.
>>
> No, we didn't. If I remember correctly, we couldn't agree on the relationship
> between attributes and coordinates, and that was a sticking-point. I thought
> that we ought to allow multivalued auxiliary coord variables for ensemble
> axes, corresponding to attributes that might be used to describe a single
> model. I would give these standard_names to identify them. Paco started the
> discussion, and in the end he made his own decisions for what to do for the
> ENSEMBLES project (because CF had not concluded), so he might comment on it.
>
>
>> Particularly, how does software recognize the ensemble dimension?
>>
> We didn't agree. But at the end of the discussion, Steve also suggested that
> it could be identified by an axis attribute, just as you have. I like that
> idea too. But it could also be given a standard name, like other coordinate
> variables e.g. ensemble_member_identifier. I suppose the values of this
> coord var might be either numeric or strings, though it your example it is
> integer. I haven't looked at the trac ticket to see if we discussed these
> points before.
>
>
>> Perhaps we should add :axis = "Ensemble" to the model coordinate variable?
>>
> I'd suggest lower case, like most CF keywords. The other axis attributes are
> all single letters (X Y Z T) but I don't think it would be a problem to use
> a word.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Jonathan
>

Im good with either/both axis = "ensemble" and/or standard_name =
"ensemble_member_identifier".

for backwards compatibility, we could consider recognizing standard_name
= "realization".
Received on Tue Mar 16 2010 - 15:44:20 GMT