Data Standards and Tools

• Foundation of ISTP/GGS science is the sharing of data

  • Project data standards selected 1989-1991 (SFDU, CDF, FITS)
  • From “CDAW” experience, then saw the need and then defined further “Implementation Guidelines” to standardize actual use of the “standards”

    • Highly-flexible self-describing formats can be a 2-edged sword

• CDF now acts the hub for a wheel of CDF-based tools

  • Dual concerns with how to get data both into and out of CDF (easily)

• Process of creating CDFs involves

  (1) Design of these CDFs to the guideline (the new“skeleton-editor”)
  

  • Interactively define overall dimensional structure and metadata (attributes)
  • Interactively define specific variables (properties, required metadata and relationships)
  • New Java-based “skeleton editor” (3rd generation try) nearing start of internal testing
  (2) Loading real data into a defined CDF (“makeCDF tool)

  • Highly capable C-based s/w driven by tabular definition of the input data layout

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