comments on the platform variable

[MathewBiddle]

1. I don't think we need the attributes platform_vocabulary and platform_type. The term animal doesn't exist in the IOOS Platform vocabulary. Plus I don't think of that as an authoritative vocabulary for these terms. We should be referencing something more authoritative, like GCMD for this content. I did some digging through the NERC Vocabulary Server and couldn't find an appropriate, generic, term. https://github.com/MathewBiddle/ATN-archive/blob/b738cbcf3836f50a3b518790662e376b7e3ad0d1/data/deployment_km_greyseal_v1.ncdump#L152-L176

2. The cf_role attribute should only be associated with the trajectory variable. See the CF1.7 guidance on coordinates and metadata

3. The long_name should be the common name for the species, in my opinion.

4. Can we change the variable name to animal? There are no hard-fast rules on variable names, so I think this adjustment would make it clearer that the variable is documenting the animal, and that animal is treated as a platform.

[MathewBiddle]

From @iamchrisser

• Request to remove the attributes platform_vocabulary and platform_type - I don't feel like it's up to me to say yes or no to this. We knew when we started this that 'animal' was missing from the IOOS vocab, but I think we hoped it would be added later. I'm not sure how to make that happen, but if that's the issue, we can pursue that. On the other hand, If Matt is comfortable speaking for IOOS and saying that we don't need it, then I'm comfortable removing it. Any objections to my reasoning, or to getting rid of it?
• The cf-role attribute is now associated with the value of the trajectory variable as suggested.
• Associate long_name attribute with the common name of the species - I think we're on board with this, but I haven't made the change yet. I want MM and the ATN office to weigh in on this.
• Change variable name to animal - this also seems OK to me, but I'd like the ATN office to approve or deny this.

[MathewBiddle]

@mmckinzie @iamchrisser what about this option. We keep the platform_type and platform_vocabulary attributes and we populate them with one of these options: A.

platform_type = "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES" ;
platform_vocabulary = 'NASA Global Change Master Directory v10.1"; 

B.

platform_type = "organism" ;
platform_vocabulary = 'SeaVoX Platform Categories v17"; 

Note to B. You can see more options for the SeaVox Vocabulary here. Like land-sea mammals or fish or cetacean.

[iamchrisser]

I vote for Option A, using the GCMD - doesn't require any additional development and so is immediately achievable.

[mmckinzie]

I am also fine with Option A.

[mmckinzie]

@iamchrisser @MathewBiddle Is it still possible to change the platform variable name to animal? I agree with Matt's earlier statement that this change would make it clearer that the variable is documenting the animal, and that animal is treated as a platform.

[iamchrisser]

platform changed to animal in the most recent example.

[MathewBiddle]

resolved with https://github.com/ioos/ioos-atn-data/commit/2dcafb8ee6c47b01e4ca4f8d6042ae07652288e4 https://github.com/ioos/ioos-atn-data/blob/2dcafb8ee6c47b01e4ca4f8d6042ae07652288e4/data/atn_trajectory_template_ncdump_20211006.txt#L214-L242

[iamchrisser]

Hold on. @MathewBiddle, I think I made a mistake here. Weren't these supposed to be global attributes?

[MathewBiddle]

yes, good catch.

[mmckinzie]

@MathewBiddle @iamchrisser IOOS has updated their recommendations surrounding platform vocab, making it OK to use: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L06/current/

So I think we should keep the platform attribute, reporting appropriate values from platform_vocabulary and then remove plaform_type attribute.

[iamchrisser]

so to clarify, we want to have the following global attributes: platform: [value from NERC/SeaVox platform vocab] platform_id: [animal lsid ] platform_name:[animal scientific name] platform_vocabulary: "http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L06/current/"

Does that look right? If yes platform_name is always going to have the same value as animal_scientific_name. Do we want to either:

1. drop animal_scientific_name and change animal_common_name to platform_common_name?
2. drop platform_name and leave animal_scientfic_name and animal_common_name as they are?
3. include all three attributes?

Finally, we still have platform_vocabulary listed as an attribute for the animal variable in the template spreadsheet. I'm going to delete that, but please comment here if we want to keep it there while also providing it as a global attribute.

[iamchrisser]

On the call just now we agreed to drop animal_scientific_name and keep platform_scientific_name. @mmckinzie

[iamchrisser]

After discussing issue 13, we changed our minds and decided to keep animal_scientific_name to go along with all of the other animal_ global attributes.