Standard Attribute List

• To: NETCDFGROUP%EDU.UCAR.UNIDATA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: Standard Attribute List
• From: The Maverick <ATAE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 24 May 93 23:23 GMT

G'Day

  I am writing a package to convert various Space Science data formats
  to netCDF, CDF, and HDF and also to interchange between these formats.
  I know about the standard global attributes within netCDF. I want to 
  compile a general global attribute list so that I can make updating
  easier. For example the name, and more importantly, the mode of an 
  instrument is not covered in any of the attribute lists I have come 
  across. What I want to know is have I missed anything which other people 
  use that does not fit in somewhere in this list ? Is there some standard
  way within netCDF to represent a list of attributes or a hierarchy of
  attributes (eg instrument.name instrument.mode etc..). Below is the 
  relevant define. BTW, I am going to release this S/W under GPL with
  a GUI using SUIT for portability.

/*
 * Global attributes associated with HDF, netCDF, and CDF files.
 *
 * Here I have tried to be as general as I could think of so as to enable.
 * an attribute "standard" to be maintained. Some of these attributes are
 * defined so as to be compatible with the ISTP KPGS (International Solar-
 * Terrestrial Physics Key Parameter Generation Software), and others to
 * be compatible with netCDF definitions.
 */

static char *Q_GLOBALATTRIB[]={

"version",         /* 00 Version of the data.                            */
"descriptor",      /* 01 Describes or further qualifies the data.        */
"title",           /* 02 Brief description of the data set               */
"mission",         /* 03 Acronym for the mission eg AMPTE, GOES          */
"project",         /* 04 eg ISTP, STEP, etc..                            */
"discipline",      /* 05 eg Solar Terrestrial Physics etc..              */
"datatype",        /* 06 Uncalibrated, Key Parameter                     */
"averaging",       /* 07 eg Spin average, NONE, etc..                    */
"spacecraft",      /* 08 For multi-spacecraft missions                   */
"sourcesite",      /* 09 eg ICSTM, MSSL, etc..                           */
"datasite",        /* 10 Mainly for ground-based eg Halley Bay etc..     */
"instrument_name", /* 11 Acronym for the instrument eg FGM, PEA etc..    */
"instrument_attr", /* 12 List of attributes of the instrument (Mode etc.)*/
"investigator",    /* 13 Name of PI or CoI eg D.J.Southwood              */
"supplier"         /* 14 Name of supplier of the data eg A.Etemadi       */
"history"          /* 15 List of what has happened to the data           */

}; /* endof Q_HDFGLOBALATTRIB */

        best regards
                Ata <(|)>
| Mail          Dr Ata Etemadi, Blackett Laboratory,                          |
|               Space and Atmospheric Physics Group,                          |
|               Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine,        |
| Janet            atae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Earn/Bitnet  atae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
| Internet/Arpanet atae%spva.ph.ic.ac.uk  Span         SPVA::atae             |