Hi again,

Within BODC, we address your concerns by having a much richer set of feature 
types that include concepts like timeSeriesSpectrum to indicate that the z-axis 
is non-spatial and so give display clients a bit more help.  However, I think 
that with the right parameter attribute semantic information and the CF feature 
types we should be OK in SeaDataNet.

My thinking so far has been confined to non-directional spectra.  I can't see 
how directional spectra could be handled in CF without specification of an 
additional feature type, but (not for the first time) I might be 
misunderstanding something in John's view of feature types.

Cheers, Roy. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ellyn Montgomery [mailto:emontgom...@usgs.gov] 
Sent: 29 August 2012 15:47
To: Lowry, Roy K.
Cc: cf-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] example of 
sea_surface_wave_directional_variance_spectral_density

Roy-
I'm glad that it's on your plate!

Conceptually, I am a bit uncomfortable with having frequency as Z since 
many of us think of Z as depth/altitude.  Having frequency as Z fits the 
shapes allowed, but I wonder what confusion it would start.  Are there 
ways for clients to identify Z as a non-depth content?  Is it as simple 
as calling the Z coordinate "frequency" instead of "depth", and then 
clients would be able to know what to do?

Then of course the direction component would need to be wedged into the 
coordinate system somehow.  Such fun!

Looking forward to the discussion!
Ellyn


On 08/29/2012 09:54 AM, Lowry, Roy K. wrote:
> Hi Ellyn,
>
> Encoding wave spectra in a CF-compliant manner is an issue that I plan to 
> address on behalf of SeaDataNet in the next month or so.  The point I'd 
> reached in thinking this through was to use the timeSeriesProfile feature 
> type with frequency as the z co-ordinate.  I think this OK, but if not I'm 
> sure somebody on this list will shout.
>
> I prefer single-value vectors rather to scalars because it opens the way to 
> packaging multiple instances into a single NetCDF file.
>
> Cheers, Roy.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CF-metadata [mailto:cf-metadata-boun...@cgd.ucar.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Ellyn Montgomery
> Sent: 28 August 2012 15:04
> To: cf-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu
> Subject: [CF-metadata] example of 
> sea_surface_wave_directional_variance_spectral_density
>
> Hello folks-
>
> We want our wave data observations to be CF compliant, with the
> dimensions and representation of time correct.  I believe the data we
> collect fits somewhere under Discrete Samples, since we end up with a
> time series of wave spectra from our stationary, bottom-mounted acoustic
> instruments.  I couldn't find how the file might look in the 1.6
> conventions document or appendices, so could someone please direct me to
> an example dataset that includes some wave spectra?  Help with which
> featureType should be used would also be appreciated.
>
> The Standard Name table says the dimension order should be
> S(t,x,y,f,theta).  Since our data is from a point observation (lat and
> lon are size (1)), can the X,Y dimensions be dropped, or are they needed
> as place-holders?
>
> Thanks very much for the help!
> Ellyn
>


-- 
Ellyn T. Montgomery, Oceanographer and Data Manager
U.S. Geological Survey
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
(508)457-2356

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