[Esip-documentation] ACDD: global attribute: source vs. variable attribute: coverage_content_type

[Jim Biard]

Aaron,

The source attribute is a free text field, so you can describe both 
parts with no problem. The attribute is intended for human reading, not 
machine processing. Just keep it succinct. You can and should provide a 
detailed explanation in the summary attribute.

Grace and peace,

Jim

On 1/5/15 2:13 PM, Aaron Sweeney via Esip-documentation wrote:
> Hi,
>
>       I am planning to create a single netCDF file which contains both 
> insitu observations and modelled values and am trying to understand 
> how best to use ACDD to distinguish the two.
>
>       It appears that I can provide each variable with a 
> highly-recommended attribute "coverage_content_type" to distinguish 
> between variables containing insitu observations 
> ("physicalMeasurement") or modelled values ("modelResult").  This 
> sounds reasonable.  However, their also exists a recommended global 
> attribute "source", whose description (see below) seems to imply that 
> the entire file contains either insitu observations or modelled 
> values, but not both.
>
>> The method of production of the original data. If it was 
>> model-generated, source should name the model and its version. If it 
>> is observational, source should characterize it. This attribute is 
>> defined in the CF Conventions. Examples: 'temperature from CTD 
>> #1234'; 'world model v.0.1'. 
>
>       Am I interpreting the description of the global attribute 
> "source" correctly?
>
>       If not, would a comma-separated list be allowed in the global 
> attribute "source" to enable inclusion of both insitu observations and 
> modelled values in the same file?
>
>       Thanks for your kind consideration.
>
> Cordially,
> Aaron
>

-- 
CICS-NC <http://www.cicsnc.org/> Visit us on
Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/cicsnc> 	*Jim Biard*
*Research Scholar*
Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites NC <http://cicsnc.org/>
North Carolina State University <http://ncsu.edu/>
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center <http://ncdc.noaa.gov/>
151 Patton Ave, Asheville, NC 28801
e: jbiard at cicsnc.org
o: +1 828 271 4900




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/esip-documentation/attachments/20150105/5af88952/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: jcdfedje.png
Type: image/png
Size: 11847 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/esip-documentation/attachments/20150105/5af88952/attachment-0001.png>