[CF-metadata] CF complexity and CF compliance

[Joe Sirott]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone involved in the CF process knows of any 
software libraries that are completely CF 1.2 compliant. I know that 
from my point of view -- as a software developer who develops software 
that must be able to read a wide variety of geophysical data formats -- 
it has been impossible to keep up with the increasingly complex 
conventions in the specification. It would be very helpful if I had 
access to a library that fully supported the semantics in the CF 
conventions (such as projections from CF allowed coordinate system to 
lat/lon space).

I'm guessing (and hoping that I'm wrong) that this software doesn't 
exist. In fact, it seems that the main focus of the CF conventions 
process has been on  the needs of data /providers/ rather than data 
/consumers/. There is an inherent conflict between the two groups -- a 
modeler wants to write data using the coordinate system of his model 
while a data consumer would prefer that the data be in a standard 
lat/lon coordinate system. The CF conventions clearly are biased in 
favor of the provider, and while the full conventions might be suitable 
for data sharing in a small, specialized modeling group they don't work 
well for interdisciplinary data sharing.

So, I'm wondering if it would be possible to come up with a subset of CF 
conventions that would suit the needs of consumers rather than providers 
-- a set of conventions where it would be practical for programmers to 
develop (and share) code to interpret data formatted according to the 
conventions and that would establish guidelines for data providers who 
wanted their data to be widely accessible. A model (no pun intended!) 
for this would be the data submission standards 
<http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ipcc/IPCC_output_requirements.htm>established 
for submission of data to the CMIP3 archive of IPCC AR4 model data. For 
example, that archive required that modelers interpolate their data to a 
lat/lon grid before the data would be accepted.

- Joe S.


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