[CF-metadata] Missing data bins in histograms

From: Jim Biard <jbiard>
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:39:56 -0400

Hi.

Another approach could be to use flag_values and flag_meanings on the
coordinate variable to indicate one or more special coordinate values
that correspond to any number of "missing data" or "out of bounds" bins.
These attributes aren't forbidden by CF, and everything should be fine
as long as the coordinate variable remains monotonic.

Grace and peace,

Jim

On 10/11/16 8:41 AM, martin.juckes at stfc.ac.uk wrote:
> Hello,
>
> the CF standard name list has two "histogram_.... " entries, and in the CMIP6 data request we may need to add a third, a histogram_of_cloud_top_height. Besides the standard name, we also need, for this new variable, a method of encoding the "missing data" bin in the histogram. That is, the histogram should record frequency in 16 data bins and one additional bin for the frequency of missing data.
>
> Can we define a "missing_data_index" attribute for histogram variables, and use this to indicate that the first bin in the array has this special purpose. It might be more pythonic to put the _FillValue in the coordinate value for the missing data bin, but I suspect that this would cause substantial problems for many software packages.
>
> regards,
> Martin
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Received on Tue Oct 11 2016 - 12:39:56 BST