I'm a bit confused.
 
I'm interpreting Wenli's comments to mean that because a slice operation
will put an onus on the server to construct and make available a CRS
definition which is different than the one used by the offered coverage,
some implementers will wish to either limit or disallow slicing on their
coverages. The means he seams to be envisioning for doing so is the same
means by which a coverage would be reprojected, i.e., by offering a list
of CRS'es in which the coverage or its subsets may be requested. Up
until now, my understanding was that this functionality would not be in
the core. Can you clarify what you mean, Peter? Are you moving the slice
operation to an extension (my recommendation)?
 
Max
 
________________________________
From: Peter Baumann [mailto:p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 1:27 PM
To: Wenli Yang
Cc: Max Martinez; Steven Keens; Unidata GALEON
Subject: Re: [galeon] how to handle "slicing" through n-D cubes?
 
Wenli-
absolutely on board, this is the way it will be in the Core.
-Peter
Wenli Yang wrote: 
Peter,
 
As I mentioned in yesterday's meeting.  If core requires slicing, it
would also require offering of a CRS different from the offered
coverage's original (or native/etc) CRS.  Other than that, I think
slicing is a good function, i.e., we can say an output coverage being 2D
(x,Y) instead of 4D (1,1,X,Y).  Of course, information on the locations
of the trimmed 2Ds should still be provided somewhere in the coverage.
 
Wenli
 
  
 
________________________________
 
 
 
 
  
 
you're right, Max. I missed to add that, thanks for clarifying.
 
What I wanted to say is that with the mimics chosen we can support both
use cases.
 
-Peter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Max Martinez wrote:
         
          
          
         
          
         
          
          
          
         
          
        I read his
        response differently. His
        description sounds to me that the equivalent behavior in a WCS
would be
        to trim
        with a coincident upper and lower bound and return a coverage
with the
        same
        dimensionality and CRS just a whole bunch of data trimmed out of
it.
        They
        wouldn't use a slice.
         
          
         
         
          
        Perhaps I'm
        misunderstanding his
        response.
         
          
         
         
          
         
          
         
          
        
        
        
________________________________
         
          
        From:
        Peter Baumann [mailto:p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
         
          Sent: Thursday, June
        17, 2010
        10:36 AM
         
          To: Steve Hankin
         
          Cc: Unidata GALEON;
        Steven Keens;
        Max Martinez
         
          Subject: Re: [galeon]
        how to
        handle "slicing" through n-D cubes?
         
          
         
          
         
         
          
        Steve,
         
          
         
        thanks again for explaining to me how your community handles the
case.
         
        In the end we agreed to go as follows in WCS:
         
        - the slicing operation defines which axes remain in the output
coverage
         
        - the server is obliged to provide some fitting CRS for the
resulting
        axis
        constellation (essentially, this only says: return a consistent
        coverage)
         
          
         
        This should give degree of freedeom to servers to respond with
        something
        appropriate for their situation, and it allows us to keep all
the
        intricate CRS
        issues out of the core.
         
          
         
        >From what I understand when reading the page you list below
this is
        compatible
        with our approach chosen.
         
          
         
        So thanks again, that helped.
         
          
         
        -Peter
         
          
         
          
         
          
         
        Steve Hankin wrote: 
         
          
         
         
          
         
        Peter Baumann wrote: 
         
          
        Steve-
         
          
         
        thanks a lot for taking time on this. Some questions inline:
         
          
         
        Steve Hankin wrote: 
         
          
        Hi Peter,
         
          
         
         
          
        I'll start the ball on this with a short answer.
         
          
         
         
          
        CF datasets are self-describing.  They do not reference a
controlled 
         
          
        vocabulary of coordinate reference systems external to the file.
Thus a 
         
          
        CF subset of a valid CF dataset is always another valid CF
dataset and 
         
          
        its geo-location is self-describing -- even if it has fewer
dimensions 
         
          
        than the parent file.  The question you are asking does not
really apply 
         
          
        to CF datasets "in their native habitat".
         
          
          
         
          
        I see. Does this inline description change
        during
        subsetting? I.e., when you are building 2-D slices (just as an
example)
        is
        elevation and time information removed from the embedded CRS
        information? (They
        may well remain somewhere in a metadata description, this is not
our
        concern
        for now.)
         
          
        If we imagine extracting (say) a single 2D
        slice in
        the XT (lon-time) plane from a 4D XYZT dataset, then the Y and Z
axes
        are
        conceptually reduced to single points ("projected").  A well
        constructed CF dataset will include single point axes (*) for Y
and Z,
        just as
        it includes multi-point axes for X and T.  We sometimes speak of
the 2D
        slice as being a degenerate
        4D
        dataset, since it still possesses the full 4D coordinate
machinery.  
        The way in which the slice is embedded into the larger
coordinate
        system
        remains self-describing. 
         
          
         
        In a similar manner, an in situ observation of a vertical
profile or of
        a time
        series may simply be regarded as a degenerate 4D dataset.  With
this
        outlook
        broad classes of data may legitimately be thought of as
"gridded"
        (though using that term would lead to confusion in some
circles).  This
        is
        part of the power of the netCDF data model -- that it unifies
the
        representation and semantics of so many different types of
features.
         
          
         
        (*) footnote to say that there is a also a short-hand way to
represent
        scalar
        axes in CF ... but using it doesn't alter the self-describing
nature of
        the
        file.
         
          
         
             - Steve
         
          
         
          
         
          
         
         
          
         
          
         
          
        Echoing your question back:  CF 1.2 (??) added a section on
"5.6. Grid 
         
          
        Mappings and Projections Horizontal Coordinate Reference
Systems", which 
         
          
        is specifically to handle the associations between CF datasets
and the 
         
          
        corresponding crs.  
         
          
        
(http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-conventions/1.4/cf-conventions.ht
ml#grid-mappings-and-projections).  
         
          
        Should this mapping be refined to address solutions to 4D (n-D) 
         
          
        subsetting that you have developed in WCS?
         
          
          
         
          
        Interesting to read this, it helps us to
        understand
        your approach. Actually, we are not yet in a position to answer
this
        question,
        currently we are trying to disentangle issues of slicing
functionality
        and CRS
        handling (the former we would like to have in the core, the
latter in
        an
        extension). We will gladly come back for this reverse discussion
once
        we have
        something in our hands.
         
          
         
        -Peter
         
          
         
          
         
          
         
          
         
          
            - Steve
         
          
         
         
          
        =============================
         
          
         
         
          
        Peter Baumann wrote:
         
          
          
         
          
         
            
        Hi community,
         
            
         
         
            
        in the WCS group we are wondering how you deal with subsetting 
         
            
        operations in n-D data spaces - obviously a result with less 
         
            
        dimensions than the original cube needs to get a different CRS 
         
            
        associated. How do you find the appropriate result CRS, for
example, 
         
            
        for a x/t cut from an x/y/z/t cube?
         
            
         
         
            
        thanks in advance for any bits of wisdom,
         
            
        Peter
         
            
         
         
            
            
         
          
         
          
         
         
          
          
         
          
         
         
          
         
          
         
          
        -- 
         
          
        Dr. Peter Baumann
         
          
         - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
         
          
           www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
         
          
           mail: p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         
          
           tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
         
          
         - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 147737)
         
          
           www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
         
          
           tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile:
+49-173-5837882
         
          
        "Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola
incertis ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui
soli destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail
disclaimer, AD 10xx)
         
          
         
         
          
         
         
          
          
         
          
         
         
          
         
          
         
          
        -- 
         
          
        Dr. Peter Baumann
         
          
         - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
         
          
           www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
         
          
           mail: p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         
          
           tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
         
          
         - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 147737)
         
          
           www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
         
          
           tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile:
+49-173-5837882
         
          
        "Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola
incertis ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui
soli destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail
disclaimer, AD 10xx)
         
          
         
         
          
         
         
          
         
 
 
 
-- 
Dr. Peter Baumann
 - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
   www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
   mail: p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
 - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 147737)
   www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
   tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
"Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis
ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli
destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer, AD
10xx)
 
 
 
  
-- 
Dr. Peter Baumann
 - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
   www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
   mail: p.baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
 - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 147737)
   www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
   tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
"Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis
ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli
destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer, AD
10xx)