Parameter Name Standards for Marine Data:
Background
In January, 2008, the IOC and JCOMM convened a workshop
entitled the
IODE/JCOMM Forum on Oceanographic Data Management and
Exchange Standards (IOC Workshop Rept. 206), to
consider selected principal issues on establishing marine data standards, with
the goal of furthering marine data interoperability. In particular the aim of
the workshop was to get broad agreement and commitment to adopt a number of
standards related to ocean data management and exchange, thereby assembling not
only the agreed conditions by which we operate, but in fact enact these
agreements in the participants' respective organizations.
Standards Recommendation
Mr. Etienne Charpentier (WMO) introduced this item and
moderated discussions. He reviewed the various lists that exist for identifying
parameters. He focused attention on Parameter Usage Vocabularies (PUVs) that
label single data values and may also be used for discovery. In this context he
addressed the following: BODC, NetCDF CF, NetCDF EPIC and BUFR, but also
mentioned MEDATLAS, SEACOOS, JGOFS, GLOBEC, GF3, GTSOPP and GRIB. Mr.
Charpentier proposed to focus on specific disciplines first to limit the number
of parameters (e.g. Physical oceanography, marine meteorology) and to consider
BODC, BUFR, CF and EPIC. They should provide for the following attributes:
unique ID, name, definition, collection ID and version ID. He further stressed
the need for mapping between the aforementioned.
- Resources on the UK NERC Data Grid Vocabulary
Server - The Vocabulary Server is a Web Service API implemented both as
SOAP and
pseudo-restful
HTTP-POX interfaces,
containing many vocabularies gathered by UK scientists
-
BODC Use Metadata Parameters List
- List P011 contains all measurement terms, including physical
measurements. This list is enormous (~19,000 terms), so should not
normally be downloaded. The surprising number is due to the fact that
the BODC register includes both parameters and methods to measure the
parameters. [Similarly named lists contain working datasets, and should
not be consulted]
- ca. 19,000 records
- 8-character codes, unique to each and every
parameter ever encountered
- Plus an abbreviated term that is human-readable
in most cases, after some orientation
-
BODC Discovery Metadata Parameters List
- This list is relatively manageable in size, because the terms are more
generalized than the Use Metadata link, above. [Similarly named lists
contain working datasets, and should not be consulted]
-
CF Convention NetCDF Standard Names
- ca. 800 records
- Full, well-formed names of all parameters, but no
codes
-
U.S NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory EPIC
Codes to Operational NetCDF Units - See
important note below about this link
- ca. 800 records
- Each record has a unique code number from 1 to 9993
- The units are specified as part of the parameter
- The official list of codes and names is called the
Key File; save the file from the above link to your computer and change
the filename extension to TXT for local use; the current filename
extension KEY is registered to a sensitive Windows function
-
Operational Codes TAC - BUFR - CREX - GRIB
- Tables documenting common WMO formats, including parameter codes
- A BUFR file consists of up to about 40 elements,
many of which contain "metadata" type information
- Data elements, parallel to the BODC and NetCDF
concepts, occur mainly in elements 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 22 and possibly
23
- Each parameter has a unique numerical code called
the Descriptor and an acronym-style Mnemonic, as well as a full name
Description.