On Mar 12, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Nan Galbraith wrote:
There are at least 3 classes here, maybe more. Parameters in
engineering units
that need some processing to become useful geophysical parameters
could be
distinguished from ones that are components (like oxygen sensor
temperature,
or radiometer voltage and temperatures) that are of no direct
interest to users.
Then there are "reporting" parameters, like percent good pings from
ADCPs,
which aren't geophysical variables but may be very useful to anyone
using the
data.
I'm not sure where we draw the line; do we create a standard name for
anything that any instrument can put out?
For me this is clearly 'yes and no'. I've been looking at all our
weird parameters. If the purpose of CF is to allow effective
discovery, exchange, and use of science data, it isn't so critical to
have really detailed standard names for instrumentation. For example,
it isn't like "Find me all data with ADCP ping counts" is a likely
first-order science search. But it's definitely useful to have that
data, and a set of broad standard name terms for instrument data
(device_signal_count, device_sample_count, device_status_flag,
device_time, etc.) would be extremely helpful for characterization and
broad searches.
The geophysical vs component measurements can be handled by the
existing standard names, with the paradigm '_of_sensor_for_' that has
already been instigated
(temperature_of_sensor_for_oxygen_in_sea_water). Though I'm
suggesting 'device' above because I want to include both sensors and
samplers for these terms.
Is there a reason not to require that variables that can be
converted *directly*
to acceptable udunits should be converted when the data's put into
NetCDF?
I'd say yes. A typical research observing data scenario is for the raw
data to be provided (instead of or along with the processed data), so
that people can reprocess it themselves if they so choose. If we are
serious about CF being used to serve observational data, it seems
reasonable to support this scenario.
John
--------------
John Graybeal <mailto:[email protected]> -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org
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