Hi All - on this topic alone, I would add that every data producer in the
GHRSST family does exactly this… all GHRSST-compliant data sets use three
dimensions, with time=1. As a server of the data, I can say that not once has
a user complained either. As a producer of GHRSST compliant data, I can't
fathom why anyone would have heartache about it. GHRSST still has a time
variable of course, and we have found that including the time dimension in the
specification has allowed for the production of some higher-level products that
would not otherwise be possible. For example, if someone wanted to put a whole
year of daily data into a single file, they could and still remain
GHRSST-compliant. None of the operational data producers in GHRSST do this,
but we've done it for some of the retrospective inter-comparison work. GHRSST
uses the time dimension in its L2, L3, and L4 specification.
Ken
p.s. - GHRSST is Group for High Resolution SST, http://www.ghrsst.org. GHRSST
Data Specification Version 2.0 is at:
https://www.ghrsst.org/files/download.php?m=documents&f=110930142648-GDS20TechnicalSpecificationsv20.pdf
On Oct 26, 2011, at 11:44 AM, Tom Rink wrote:
> Another issue relates to defining a mechanism to provide a time-stamp for
> a file, ie. time dimension length = 1. Many data providers will not subscribe
> to the notion of a 3D variable (time,x,y) with time=1. I'm not agreeing or
> disagreeing, but engineers associated with the GOES-R project said they
> would not do this. So we have a Time(time) variable to hold the nominal
> time of the image.
[NOTE: The opinions expressed in this email are those of the author alone and
do not necessarily reflect official NOAA, Department of Commerce, or US
government policy.]
Kenneth S. Casey, Ph.D.
Technical Director
NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center
1315 East-West HighWay
Silver Spring MD 20190 USA
+1 301-713-3272 x133
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov