CF parameter meta-data
OpenEarth recommends the use of vocabularies to uniquely identify parameters. We adhere to the vocabularies issues by the Climate Forecast group: CF Metadata. For every parameter add the Attribute standard_name with the associated name in the CF Metadata standard name tables.
A few examples
- all units are to be selected from the Unidata UDUNITS package
- Examples for some frequently used parameters:
- time is stored according to the CF convenction as 'days since 1970-1-1 00:00:00 +01:00'. To avoid confusion due to different calenders in the first milennia, we recommend to select the reference data in the 20th century (instead of for instance at teh imaginary data 0000-0-0 as matlab does). To prevent loss of precision for high-frequency data we recommend to store all dates as doubles when necesarry. Please do include the timezone for high-frequency data.
- units= 'days since 1970-1-1 00:00:00 +01:00'
- standard_name = 'time'
- longitude coordinate
- standard_name = 'longitude'
- units= 'degrees_east'
- latitude coordinate
- standard_name = 'latitude'
- units= 'degrees_north'
- wind direction
- standard_name = 'wind_from_direction' or 'wind_to_direction'
- units= 'degree_true' when using the nautical convenction.
- time is stored according to the CF convenction as 'days since 1970-1-1 00:00:00 +01:00'. To avoid confusion due to different calenders in the first milennia, we recommend to select the reference data in the 20th century (instead of for instance at teh imaginary data 0000-0-0 as matlab does). To prevent loss of precision for high-frequency data we recommend to store all dates as doubles when necesarry. Please do include the timezone for high-frequency data.
- Point Observation Data are also defined in the CF Metadata are defined:
- point: one or more parameters measured at one point in time and space
- stationTimeSeries: a time-series of data points at the same location, with varying time
- trajectory: a connected set of data points along a 1D curve in time and space
- profile: a set of data points along a vertical line
- stationProfileTimeSeries: a time-series of profiles at a named location
- section: a collection of profiles which originate along a trajectory.
