The following collections of Master CDF files were generated from a single data CDF or netCDF, for each dataset, for use in the 
CDAWeb system (https://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov).  They are provided to the public for easier viewing/searching the metadata and 
quantities available in the data sets.

- Master CDFs https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/software/cdawlib/0MASTERS/

- Tar file containing all master cdfs: https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/software/cdawlib/0MASTERS/master.tar

- Copy of Master CDFs in ASCII skeleton form https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/software/cdawlib/0SKELTABLES/


In many cases the Master CDF is changed to improve the metadata in the original data files (especially to improve their 
compliance with the ISTP Metadata Guidelines), and often to add CDAWeb-specific metadata and addition plotting capabilities. 

In many cases global attribute values, in the Master CDFs, will have been replaced with a value of space (" ") to indicate to 
the CDAWeb software, that the values for that attribute in the original data (which may vary with data files and versions) files 
should be used. Otherwise, the attributes in the Master CDFs will over-ride the values in the data files for plotting, listing,
 and creating new CDF or netCDF files with selected variables and time ranges. 

Since the Master files are created using skeletontable/skeletoncdf tools from a data file and not necessarily reviewed and edited 
(especially for historical datasets), THEY SHOULD BE USED WITH CAUTION. 

BACKGROUND:
Master CDFs are skeleton CDFs, one per dataset.  A skeleton CDF https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp_guide/master_skeleton.html is a 
CDF file with only metadata and no time-based data. 

The CDF library command-line tools, skeletontable and skeletoncdf, will convert skeleton CDFs to and from ASCII skeleton files 
for editing in regular text-based tools.

New datasets are most easily created and verified using the Java-based SKTeditor https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/skteditor/ tool, 
which produces and edits a skeleton CDF.  

The skeleton CDF can then be used to add data with tools like the IDL-based IDLmakecdf https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/CDAWlib.html#IDLmakecdf
and command-line MakeCDF https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/makecdf.html

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Please acknowledge the NASA Space Physics Data Facility and the mission and instrument teams for data usage.

CONTACT: NASA-SPDF-Support <NASA-SPDF-Support@nasa.onmicrosoft.com>