Glider RA attribution: IOOS conventions, open issues, etc

[emiliom]

I'll populate this issue with links to relevant discussions, and brief summaries of status.

• Much of the core discussion about this started at the IOOS DMAC annual meeting in May/June 2016, followed by this Github issue: https://github.com/ioos/ioosngdac/issues/105
• See also our notes from the NANOOS DMAC IOOS review, ~ February 2017. We talked about this topic a fair bit. Including this email (mainly with Becky) from 2017/5/22, "DMAC Review Glider Follow-up"
• See my email exchanges starting on 2016/6/2, "NANOOS glider data in archive"
• See my email exchanges with NCEI starting on 2016/12/7, "Side question: NANOOS Glider-DAC data at NCEI?"

And here's a summary of the situation I wrote in early March (2018), based on my fuzzy recollections:

It's complicated, as there are different IOOS-related places where that dataset shows up, and the issue of attribution needs to be asked at each of those applications:

• Glider DAC ERDDAP
• Glider DAC Map application
• IOOS Catalog
• NCEI archive of data from the Glider DAC

and maybe more. I don't remember the status, and the last time I checked across the board was a year ago. One way to cast the question is, if you search on "NANOOS" in each of those applications, do you get back the NANOOS-CeNCOOS glider dataset? My memory is that only the Glider DAC ERDDAP consistently returns that glider dataset.

At a more technical level, NANOOS appears in the dataset title for the glider dataset. That's one attribution mechanism. But over the last two years there was discussion of a more "structured" way to encode within each netcdf file the RA or RA's that should be attributed. The scheme was chosen, but I've never gotten a good sense of the implementation status at those various applications. I've asked over time, but can't remember the latest response, or even if the scheme itself has changed.

[emiliom]

IOOS' Becky Baltes sent out this email on 2017-11-1:

RA Attribution in glider files

IOOS Glider DAC Data Providers,

A few RAs and glider data providers have asked about how they can ensure that any glider deployed as part of an IOOS regional association will show up when searching the NCEI archive: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ioos/

After discussion with Tom Ryan at NCEI, we have decided that the dataset's "ioos_regional_association" global variable:

https://github.com/ioos/ioosngdac/blob/master/nc/template/IOOS_Glider_NetCDF_v3.0-qartod.cdl#L623

will be used to mark a deployment as part of a regional association. Going forward, we are requesting that this global attribute be used for this purpose, i.e.:

GLOBAL:ioos_regional_association = "MARACOOS" (insert your RA here)

Any deployment that has this global attribute set to a valid RA acronym will be searchable via the IOOS specific archive data portal at NCEI.

As for previously submitted DAC deployments, if you would like to add an RA association, please email us (glider.dac.support@noaa.gov) with a list of the ERDDAP dataset id and the RA that you would like this deployment associated with by November 15, 2017 (if you need extra time, let me know).

Please keep in mind that data providers are NOT required to associate a deployment with an IOOS RA in order to submit them to the DAC. We are providing this functionality for those deployments that are or were funded by IOOS RA money and/or for which data providers would like this information to be associated and searchable.

[cseaton]

I've contacted the glider DAC to ask about updating the existing metadata.

[emiliom]

Thanks Charles! FYI, I was only compiling this information, for now, to make it easier to act later on.

[emiliom]

I've contacted the glider DAC to ask about updating the existing metadata.

Did you hear back from them?