User:Markf129/Earth sciences data format interoperability: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:11, 9 September 2010

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==Conversion techniques==

When converting between the various formats, the translating software must assemble the data and records into similar variables, dimensions, and coordinates. In some cases, a format may not contain all the information needed to translate to the other format. For example, when converting from GRIB to NetCDF often all the needed GRIB dimensions are seldom present. In order to assemble related records into NetCDF like variables, sometimes a single dimension must be used. In this examplecase, the variable is given the same name as the NetCDF dimension.

Dimensions aremay oftenbe established by first sorting the given grid data ininto a coherent order. AttributesOnly then, if a dimension is not present it will be absent in the conversion. In contrast, attributes such as the start time, may not change from record to record. In these cases, the same attribute value may be assigned to the subsequent variables. Every attempt to assign correct values to each element is made, however, if a dimension is not present it will be absent in the conversion.

It is a good practice to still convert data even when elements are missing, but warn the user of potential problems.

==Conversion tables==