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#107: CF Data Model 1.7
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  Reporter:  markh           |       Owner:  [email protected]
      Type:  task            |      Status:  new                          
  Priority:  medium          |   Milestone:                               
 Component:  cf-conventions  |     Version:                               
Resolution:                  |    Keywords:                               
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Comment (by markh):

 Replying to [comment:20 davidhassell]:


 > The way I see it, the purpose of a coordinate construct is to geo-locate
 the data. If it contains enough metadata for its array values to do this,
 then that is fine.

 I don't think a horizontal spatial coordinate will ever contain enough
 metadata to geo-locate itself accurately without a coordinate reference
 system. It is the CRS that provides the geolocation for coordinate value.

 > If not then a transform construct provides the extra information needed
 by the coordinate construct to do that geo-location. Is this different to
 your coordinate reference system?

 The coordinate reference system is for geolocation, yes.

 > Perhaps the name "transform construct" is troublesome. If I recall
 correctly (?), we chose it because its practical purpose in the
 conventions is to record how one set of coordinates may be ''transformed''
 into another set of (possibly more meaningful) coordinates. Note that
 whether the latter set exists, or not, is immaterial to the data model, as
 is the domain of the transformation (horizontal (grid_mapping), vertical
 (formula_terms), or anything else).

 To me transformation is one of many practical purposes of accurate
 geolocation.  Another example might be calculating the distance between
 locations on the geoid.

 Early CF focussed on one particular use case, that of providing explicit
 latitude longitude coordinates where the coordinate variables are not.
 This is useful, no doubt, but it is one of many cases.

 So, whilst I can see the similarity between this case and the
 parameterised vertical coordinate, with both providing a derived
 coordinate (or two) as an output, I am not comfortable with all coordinate
 reference system use cases being handled this way.

 I think it helps clarity to have the CRS as an explicit type in the data
 model and to handle derived coordinates, be they vertical or horizontal,
 as a separate type.

 There's no problem with CF-NetCDF having a particular method of encoding
 this which is sensitive to its historical development.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/107#comment:21>
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