Re: [cf-satellite] About satellite names

• To: <cf-satellite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: [cf-satellite] About satellite names
• From: Martin Raspaud <martin.raspaud@xxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:56:47 +0100

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On 17/02/12 15:27, Jim Biard wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I suggest that we follow existing standards for handling this.  Our
> primary inspiration for how to handle this should probably be the ISO
> 19115-2 metadata standard.  It specifies three (at least!) elements for
> specifying the system used for acquiring or producing the data.  In
> short form they are project, platform, and instrument.  The full names are:
> 
>    *
> /gmi:MI_Metadata/gmd:identificationInfo/gmd:MD_DataIdentification/gmd:descriptiveKeywords/gmd:MD_Keywords/gmd:keyword/gco:CharacterString
> 
>      with gmd:MD_KeywordTypeCode="project" (there are actually 3
>      different ways you can do this one!)
>    *
> acquisitionInformation/MI_AcquisitionInformation/instrument/MI_Instrument/mountedOn/MI_Platform/identifier/MD_Identifier/code/CharacterString
> 
>    *
> acquisitionInformation/MI_AcquisitionInformation/instrument/MI_Instrument/citation/CI_Citation/identifier/MD_Identifier/code/CharacterString
> 
> 

Hi Jim,

Thanks a lot for this, it was exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping
for !

> The Unidate netCDF Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery specifies
> the attribute project, and this works together with THREDDS.
> 
> At NOAA NCDC, where I work, we have developed a standard for the
> metadata we are storing in our Climate Data Records Program files.
> (You can see the entire standard at
> ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/sds/cdrp-guid-0042-v1.0-netcdf-metadata-guidelines-for-ioc-noaa-cdrs.pdf)

Do you know if this is used by anyone else ? Or if there are similar
metadata standards used elsewhere ?

> As it relates to this topic, our standard specifies the use of
> attributes named project, platform, and sensor.  They have the advantage
> of being applicable to a much wider variety of systems than satellites. 
> The definitions of these attributes in the standard are (they can all be
> multi-valued):
> 
> project
> 
>    Name of the scientific project(s) for which the data was created.
>    Use as needed. If available, select a project name from the NASA
>    GCMD Project Keywords list (see PDF reference or copy from TXT).
> 
> platform
> 
>    Keywords for the platforms that contribute to the dataset.
>    Select keywords from the NASA GCMD Platform Keywords list as
>    applicable (see PDF reference or copy from TXT).
> 
> sensor
> 
>    Keywords for the instruments that contribute to the dataset.
>    Select keywords from the NASA GCMD Instrument Keywords list as
>    applicable (see PDF reference or copy from TXT).

Looks sensible.

> Notice that in all three definitions NASA GCMD Keywords lists are
> referenced.  These lists are a set of controlled vocabularies that
> contain names for many satellites that have been launched (or will be
> launched in the near future), the instruments that are on those
> satellites, and for many, many other systems.  They also have a system
> in place for submitting new keywords.  I am currently working on
> producing a netCDF product from NPP-JPSS (project) SUOMI-NPP (platform)
> VIIRS (sensor) data.  I strongly recommend that we use these GCMD
> keyword vocabularies rather than rolling our own.

Yes, I agree with you. I was unfortunately unaware of GCMD, but it looks
as a reasonable alternative.


> You can check out all that GCMD has to offer at their web site
> (http://gcmd.nasa.gov/).  You can download PDFs of the lists at
> http://gcmd.nasa.gov/Resources/valids/.
> 
> Having said all that, the GCMD platform keyword for Martin's example
> seems to be missing!  They have the platform keyword MSG, but no MSG-N,
> or any METEOSAT-8 or -9.  I guess that means no one has submitted them
> yet, or that it hasn't been published yet.  This an be addressed by an
> interested party at http://gcmd.nasa.gov/User/authoring.html.  (You must
> obtain a user account to do so.)

Thanks for that. I will try to submit a few names then.

Best regards,
Martin
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• References:
  • [cf-satellite] About satellite names
    • From: Martin Raspaud
  • Re: [cf-satellite] About satellite names
    • From: Jim Biard