14 February 2013 – The OpenGeospatial Consortium (OGC®) membership has adopted the OGC CF-netCDF Data Model extension to theexisting OGC Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) Core Encoding Standard version1.0.
TheCF-netCDF DataModel is aflexible data model widely used in climate and weather forecast systems and inother geoscience communities. The CF conventions define metadata that provide adefinitive description of what the data in each netCDF variable represents, andthe spatial and temporal properties of the data. This enables users of datafrom different sources to decide which quantities are comparable, andfacilitates building applications with powerful extraction, regridding, anddisplay capabilities. The candidate CF-netCDF Data Model extension to the existing OGC Network Common Data Form (NetCDF)Core Encoding Standard version 1.0 isthe latest step in a longer-term plan for establishing CF-netCDF as an OGCstandard for binary encoding. This willenable standard delivery of data in binary form via several OGC serviceinterface standards, including the OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS), Web FeatureService (WFS), and Sensor Observation Service (SOS) Interface Standards.
The OGC CF-netCDF encodingsupports electronic encoding of geospatial data, specifically digitalgeospatial information representing space- and time-varying phenomena. NetCDF (network Common Data Form) iswidely used internationally to communicate and store many kinds ofmultidimensional data, although it was originally developed for the Earth sciencecommunity. The NetCDF data model isparticularly well suited to providing data in forms familiar to atmospheric andoceanic scientists: namely, as sets of related arrays.
NetCDFwas developed and is maintained and actively supported by the Unidata ProgramCenter of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) (www.unidata.ucar.edu),and UCAR is the OGC memberthat submitted this candidate standard to the OGC. The OGC NetCDF Core Encoding Standard has been formally recognized by US Government NASA and NOAA standardsbodies. UCAR and other OGC members introduced the first NetCDF specification asa candidate OGC standard to encourage broader international use and greaterinteroperability among clients and servers interchanging data in binary form.
The CF-netCDF Data Model extension to the existing OGC Network CommonData Form (NetCDF) Core Encoding Standard version 1.0 is available along withother netCDF standards and a netCDF Primer at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/netcdf .
The OGC is an internationalconsortium of more than 480 companies, government agencies, researchorganizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to developpublicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards support interoperablesolutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-basedservices, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers tomake geospatial information and services accessible and useful with anyapplication that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.
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