| Attribute |
Description |
| id |
An identifier for the data set, provided by and unique within its naming authority. The combination of the "naming authority" and the "id" should be globally unique, but the id can be globally unique by itself also. IDs can be URLs, URNs, DOIs, meaningful text strings, a local key, or any other unique string of characters. The id should not include white space characters. |
| naming_authority |
The organization that provides the initial id (see above) for the dataset. The naming authority should be uniquely specified by this attribute. We recommend using reverse-DNS naming for the naming authority; URIs are also acceptable. Example: 'edu.ucar.unidata'. |
| cdm_data_type |
The organization of the data, as derived from the Common Data Model's Scientific Data layer and understood by THREDDS. (This is a THREDDS "dataType", and is different from the CF NetCDF attribute 'featureType', which indicates a Discrete Sampling Geometry file in CF.)
The organization of the data, as derived from the Common Data Model's Scientific Data layer and understood by THREDDS (this is a THREDDS "dataType"). One of point, profile, section, station, station_profile, trajectory, grid, image, or swath. Please note that this is different from the CF NetCDF attribute 'featureType' that indicates a Discrete Sampling Geometry file—for guidance on those terms, please see the NODC guidance. |
| history |
Provides an audit trail for modifications to the original data. This attribute is also in the NetCDF Users Guide: 'This is a character array with a line for each invocation of a program that has modified the dataset. Well-behaved generic netCDF applications should append a line containing: date, time of day, user name, program name and command arguments.' To include a more complete description you can append a reference to an ISO Lineage entity; see NOAA EDM ISO Lineage guidance. |
| source |
The method of production of the original data. If it was model-generated, source should name the model and its version. If it is observational, source should characterize it. This attribute is defined in the CF Conventions. Examples: 'temperature from CTD #1234'; 'world model v.0.1'.
|
| processing_level |
A textual description of the processing (or quality control) level of the data. |
| Miscellaneous information about the data, not captured elsewhere. This attribute is defined in the CF Conventions. |
| acknowledgement |
A place to acknowledge various types of support for the project that produced this data. |
| license |
Provide the URL to a standard or specific license, enter "Freely Distributed" or "None", or describe any restrictions to data access and distribution in free text. |
| standard_name_vocabulary |
The name and version of the controlled vocabulary from which variable standard names are taken. Example: 'CF Standard Name Table v27' |
| date_created |
The date on which this version of the data was created. (Modification of values implies a new version, hence this would be assigned the date of the most recent values modification.) Metadata changes are not considered when assigning the date_created. The ISO 8601:2004 extended date format is recommended, as described in the Attribute Content Guidance section. |
| creator_name |
The name of the person (or other creator type specified by the creator_type attribute) principally responsible for creating this data. |
| creator_email |
The email address of the person (or other creator type specified by the creator_type attribute) principally responsible for creating this data. |
| institution |
The name of the institution principally responsible for originating this data. This attribute is recommended by the CF convention. |
| project |
The name of the project(s) principally responsible for originating this data. Multiple projects can be separated by commas, as described under Attribute Content Guidelines. Examples: 'PATMOS-X', 'Extended Continental Shelf Project'. |
| publisher_name |
The name of the person (or other entity specified by the publisher_type attribute) responsible for publishing the data file or product to users, with its current metadata and format. |
| publisher_email |
The email address of the person (or other entity specified by the publisher_type attribute) responsible for publishing the data file or product to users, with its current metadata and format. |
| publisher_url |
The URL of the person (or other entity specified by the publisher_type attribute) responsible for publishing the data file or product to users, with its current metadata and format. |
| geospatial_bounds |
Describes the data's 2D or 3D geospatial extent in OGC's Well-Known Text (WKT) Geometry format (reference the OGC Simple Feature Access (SFA) specification). The meaning and order of values for each point's coordinates depends on the coordinate reference system (CRS). The ACDD default is 2D geometry in the EPSG:4326 coordinate reference system. The default may be overridden with geospatial_bounds_crs and geospatial_bounds_vertical_crs (see those attributes). EPSG:4326 coordinate values are latitude (decimal degrees_north) and longitude (decimal degrees_east), in that order. Longitude values in the default case are limited to the [-180, 180) range. Example: 'POLYGON ((40.26 -111.29, 41.26 -111.29, 41.26 -110.29, 40.26 -110.29, 40.26 -111.29))'. |
| geospatial_bounds_crs |
The coordinate reference system (CRS) of the point coordinates in the geospatial_bounds attribute. This CRS may be 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional, but together with geospatial_bounds_vertical_crs, if that attribute is supplied, must match the dimensionality, order, and meaning of point coordinate values in the geospatial_bounds attribute. If geospatial_bounds_vertical_crs is also present then this attribute must only specify a 2D CRS. EPSG CRSs are strongly recommended. If this attribute is not specified, the CRS is assumed to be EPSG:4326. Examples: 'EPSG:4979' (the 3D WGS84 CRS), 'EPSG:4047'. |
| geospatial_bounds_vertical_crs |
The vertical coordinate reference system (CRS) for the Z axis of the point coordinates in the geospatial_bounds attribute. This attribute cannot be used if the CRS in geospatial_bounds_crs is 3-dimensional; to use this attribute, geospatial_bounds_crs must exist and specify a 2D CRS. EPSG CRSs are strongly recommended. There is no default for this attribute when not specified. Examples: 'EPSG:5829' (instantaneous height above sea level), "EPSG:5831" (instantaneous depth below sea level), or 'EPSG:5703' (NAVD88 height). |
| geospatial_lat_min |
Describes a simple lower latitude limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. Geospatial_lat_min specifies the southernmost latitude covered by the dataset. |
| geospatial_lat_max |
Describes a simple upper latitude limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. Geospatial_lat_max specifies the northernmost latitude covered by the dataset. |
| geospatial_lon_min |
Describes a simple longitude limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. geospatial_lon_min specifies the westernmost longitude covered by the dataset. See also geospatial_lon_max. |
| geospatial_lon_max |
Describes a simple longitude limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. geospatial_lon_max specifies the easternmost longitude covered by the dataset. Cases where geospatial_lon_min is greater than geospatial_lon_max indicate the bounding box extends from geospatial_lon_max, through the longitude range discontinuity meridian (either the antimeridian for -180:180 values, or Prime Meridian for 0:360 values), to geospatial_lon_min; for example, geospatial_lon_min=170 and geospatial_lon_max=-175 incorporates 15 degrees of longitude (ranges 170 to 180 and -180 to -175). |
| geospatial_vertical_min |
Describes the numerically smaller vertical limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. See geospatial_vertical_positive and geospatial_vertical_units. |
| geospatial_vertical_max |
Describes the numerically larger vertical limit; may be part of a 2- or 3-dimensional bounding region. See geospatial_vertical_positive and geospatial_vertical_units. |
| geospatial_vertical_positive |
One of 'up' or 'down'. If up, vertical values are interpreted as 'altitude', with negative values corresponding to below the reference datum (e.g., under water). If down, vertical values are interpreted as 'depth', positive values correspond to below the reference datum. Note that if geospatial_vertical_positive is down ('depth' orientation), the geospatial_vertical_min attribute specifies the data's vertical location furthest from the earth's center, and the geospatial_vertical_max attribute specifies the location closest to the earth's center. |
| time_coverage_start |
Describes the time of the first data point in the data set. Use the ISO 8601:2004 date format, preferably the extended format as recommended in the Attribute Content Guidance section. |
| time_coverage_end |
Describes the time of the last data point in the data set. Use ISO 8601:2004 date format, preferably the extended format as recommended in the Attribute Content Guidance section. |
| time_coverage_duration |
Describes the duration of the data set. Use ISO 8601:2004 duration format, preferably the extended format as recommended in the Attribute Content Guidance section. |
| time_coverage_resolution |
Describes the targeted time period between each value in the data set. Use ISO 8601:2004 duration format, preferably the extended format as recommended in the Attribute Content Guidance section. |
