Re: [cf-satellite] Initial draft of a C-RDR structure for NPP VIIRS data

• To: Tom Whittaker <whittaker@xxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: [cf-satellite] Initial draft of a C-RDR structure for NPP VIIRS data
• From: Drew Saunders <Drew.Saunders@xxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:32:48 -0400

Hi Tom, etc

Thanks.

Drew

Tom Whittaker wrote:

Hi John....

Probably have to be the week after next -- Tom Rink & Tommy Jasmin
(and others) will be at a conference next week.  Let's touch base when
they return.

tom

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 3:43 PM,  <John.J.Bates@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tom, thanks for valuable input.  Too many questions for a simple email.
It would probably be better to have a telecon with you and the Wisc
folks and a wider group at NCDC to have better interaction.

I'm on my way to London for a CEOS meeting but back next week.  How
about a telecon next week?  (I'm off to the plane now so may not be able
to respond...)

Regards, John

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Whittaker <whittaker@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 1:48 pm
Subject: Re: [cf-satellite] Initial draft of a C-RDR structure for NPP
VIIRS data

Hi Jim...

Regarding John Bates' note (below) and your post to the cf-satellite
list,  I wanted to express our interest in this work.  As you may be
aware, we have been working with the simulated JPSS data to help
refine it's form.  And, of course, we are working through this
cf-satellite email list to define a starting CF convention for
satellite data as part of our GOES-R work (it is moving along, but
slowly), to provide a baseline for data providers and application
developers so that little new code has to be written every time some
new satellite data is made available.

With regard to your and John's notes, though, we don't really know the
context and thus several questions come to mind:  is NOAA going to
coordinate among their data providers to create one "standard format"
for these data?  Or will there be another step in the process (for
example, logically combining files via NCML)?

We also wonder if John's note, and your work, are related to what we
are already engaged in doing with the simulated data?  It is our
understanding that this form would be very close to what will be
available to users.  Is that still the case, or is this a separate
effort?

And....is this related to CLASS and/or GRAVITE?

Let me also comment on the NCML example you posted -- I am very
disturbed by the use of "groups" -- even worse, nested groups.  While
this is certainly part of HDF5 and the NetCDF-4 "Model", using nested
groups makes it extremely difficult to write generic applications that
will be able to simply open a NetCDF file, gather all the variables
and then attempt to make sense of them.  It also makes it difficult to
even inspect the data.  If at all possible, I beg you to reconsider
this since it will result in people having to write a lot of code
specific to these data, just to paw their way through the
forest....instead of just having a "getVariables()" call....

Let me add that the key to the cf-satellite convention effort is to
lock in a basic form of the data that can be added to for specific
needs (for example, adding "engineering data"), so that applications
have a chance of understanding the basic structure and could, perhaps,
present a sensible list of choices of parameters to a user....or just
"know" what to do.

Finally (for John?) -- Are we talking only about C-RDR level0 or
L1B or both?

Thanks ahead....and definitely count us "in".....

Best wishes,

tom
Tom Rink
Tommy Jasmin

--------------- Original Message from John Bates -----------------
From: "John J. Bates" <John.J.Bates@xxxxxxxx>
Date: July 19, 2010 12:59:51 PM CDT
To: <itsc17@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: VIIRS Climate-RDR reveiw

Dear Colleagues, at ITSC-17 I mentioned that we have an effort to
translate the original form of the NPP-JPSS raw data record (RDR)
format into something more user friendly that would also contain all
information needed to process into calibrated, navigated radiance
data.  We are now at the point where we are considering the specifics
of how to write out the data (already decided NetCDF 4 CF-compliant)
and wish to get you input as you are potential users.

Those who would like to participate in getting information and
providing feedback, please contact Jim Biard (Jim.Biard@xxxxxxxx) for
more information.  We will be doing the VIIRS data first, but will be
doing all sensors on NPP eventually.

Regards, John

----------------------------end----------------------------

--
Tom Whittaker
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Space Science & Engineering Center (SSEC)
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)
1225 W. Dayton Street
Madison, WI  53706  USA
ph: +1 608 262 2759

• References:
  • Re: [cf-satellite] Initial draft of a C-RDR structure for NPP VIIRS data
    • From: John . J . Bates
  • Re: [cf-satellite] Initial draft of a C-RDR structure for NPP VIIRS data
    • From: Tom Whittaker