Candidate Technical Topics

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Selected Server Topics

Design Issues

• WCS version 1.0, 1.1.2, 2.0?
• Combining WMS, WFS, WCS?

Server for Different Data Types

• Grid data (model, emiss., sat.)
• Point-Station (surf. Netw.)
• Other data types?

Server Maintenance-Support

• SourceForge, Docum. Guides
• Server code governance

Server Performance

• Remote access or cache (??)
• Extraction of vertical levels (how to implement in a useful and WCS 1.1/2.0 compliant way)
• Streaming concept:
  • idea is to speed delivery of netcdf files by avoiding a local copy action before the download (if store=false)
  • requires separation of header creation and variable data (this is probably accomplished in C API but we are not sure about Python API)
  • would be nice to know about output file/stream size before creation (to show download progress/estimate download time etc.)
  • might not require "real streaming formats" such as ncstream (ncstream is a new format that differs from current netcdf 3/4, hence users would have to locally convert from ncstream to "normal" netcdf if they want a netcdf file in the end. Therefore, ncstream may be useful for specific client applications, but maybe not for general file download)
• metadata Request caching (store response XML so that they are available for a subsequent request with same parameters)
• File caching
  • input file caching: keep input files open (for a while) so that subsequent reads from them are quicker (no need to parse netCDF header again, etc)
    • this seems to have worked on windows but failed on linux, more work needed
• output file caching:
  • if there is still a result file in the temp dir that fits the request, deliver that instead of generating a new one
    • might collide with the streaming approach - at least for store=false parameter
• maybe limit maximum dataset size requested with store=true parameter to avoid excessive local copy operations on the server side
  • requires a reliable output file size estimator
  • server would return an exception if estimated size is over given threshold
  • would force people to use store=false for large datasets, so that data could be streamed without local copy
  • should not violate WCS 1.1 standard as only store=false is mandatory

Selected Network Topics

AQ Network Design Issues

• Autonomy-interop. balance
• Network Catalog(s)

AQ Community Catalog

• Domain/Application Catalog(s)

Network Metadata Issues

• Discovery metadata for AQ
• Provenance, quality, security

Network Operation, Maintenance

• Governance, Legitimacy

Selected Client Topics

Client Applications

• Regulations/Directives
• Air Quality/Composition. Science
• Informing the public

Client Design Issues

• Desktop vs web-based
• Workflow? Mashups?

Community tools methods

• Tools …
• Etc etc