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SolarArbiter / solarforecastarbiter-core

Core data gathering, validation, processing, and reporting package for the Solar Forecast Arbiter
https://solarforecastarbiter-core.readthedocs.io
MIT License
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support cloud index and/or clear sky index units #555

Open wholmgren opened 4 years ago

wholmgren commented 4 years ago

Should we support a cloud index and/or clear sky index unit? It's not technically difficult and I think we should do it. Objections/concerns @alorenzo175?

I'm thinking about what would be needed to analyze @travisMHarty's ANOC + Quantile Regression forecasts in the Solar Forecast Arbiter.

wholmgren commented 4 years ago

Some other options to consider are a generic arbitrary units variable and/or an arbitrary unitless variable.

alorenzo175 commented 4 years ago

A generic variable could be OK. I think it's easy enough to add to core, but requires a schema change in the api. So, I'm for adding a generic to core, but maybe we should think more about what that entails for the web platform.

wholmgren commented 4 years ago

If I understand correctly, shallow support for a new unit in core is just a matter of adding an entry to datamodel.ALLOWED_VARIABLES and datamodel.COMMON_NAMES. So for local analysis I'd probably prefer to do that than deal with a generic variable.

My biggest concern with a generic variable for the web platform is that it's an invitation to a user to dump their garbage into our platform. I don't think it's big deal in practice, but hard to be certain about that.