Data Standards

All our data products meet a specific set of standards, which helps to make our data easier to use for the scientific community.

You will find a full guide to our data standards on the National Centre for Atmospheric Science Observations project site.

We supply three levels of data to the user: Field, Archive, and Value Added.

Field

The user can download (but not delete) data from the host PC but it should be noted that this data will not have been quality controlled. This data is for monitoring purposes only and should not be used for analysis

Archive

This is the data product file that is routinely deposited with the CEDA archive and conforms to NCAS-GENERAL data standard

Value Added

These are data products that take substantial input from a facility scientist. They are usually bespoke being designed and generated to meet the needs of the individual user. These products do not need to conform with the NCAS-GENERAL standard but it is strongly encouraged that they follow the protocols as closely as possible.

The NCAS-GENRAL standard defines the following data product levels.

Data Product Level 0

Data in the format native to the instrument – no processing has been applied.

Data Product Level 1

Post-processing to parse data from native format to archive format – QC applied.

Data Product Level 2

Post-processing to parse data from native format to archive format – QC applied and additional processing for motion correction, flow distortion, statistical appraisal, and calibration.

Data Product Level 3

A data product that is derived from data product of level 1 or 2 or their combination.

netCDF4 – classic