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NOTICE: This version of the NSF Unidata web site (archive.unidata.ucar.edu) is no longer being updated.
Current content can be found at unidata.ucar.edu.
To learn about what's going on, see About the Archive Site.
Research Field Required Precision Time for 54bits
-------------- ------------------ ---------------
1. Radio pulsar timing 0.1 microseconds over years 50 years
2. Astronomical X-ray data 0.01 microseconds over years 5 years*
3. Planet Ephemerides 1 microseconds over decades 500 years
4. Laser/Atomic Spectroscopy 0.1 femtoseconds over msec 1 second*
5. Fusion 1 nanoseconds over seconds 1 month
6. Neutrino detection 1 millisecond over decades 500,000 years#
* Already exceeded
# Unlikely to exceed (my opinion)
The point is that there needs to a hierarchy of time levels exceeding 2, as
as pack@acd.ucar.edu as proposed.
I doubt I will respond to the next question (Does anybody know of any
datasets requiring ...?).
I am a new user of netCDF. I was attracted to it because it had no inherent
properties dedicated to a particular discipline, like FITS, for example.
I hope the developers keep this discipline-free attribute ranked high as they
decide how to improve a useful system.
=Fred Knight (INTERNET:knight@ll.mit.edu)