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rweigel / cdawmeta

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Blank space for units #3

Open rweigel opened 11 months ago

rweigel commented 11 months ago

Many parameters have blank space for units in master CDFs. Nand reports the units for these parameters as blank spaces.

For example, FAULT in WI_K0_SPHA

My understanding is that a blank space in a master CDF GlobalAttribute is a signal to CDAWeb that the value should be obtained from a raw CDF (usually because it varies across files).

Does a blank space for units mean "dimensionless" or does it mean either dimensionless or "I don't know the unit or don't want to enter the unit but I want to pass validation?"

Also, some parameters have an empty string for UNITS (for example, SYMM of WI_ELM2_3DP). Nand gives these parameters units of null.

berniegsfc commented 11 months ago

I don't know about UNITS but for CATDESC, VAR_NOTES, and VARIABLE_PURPOSE, a single period character in the master also means to look in the data CDF for the value. A single period seems to be equivalent to a single blank character but I guess it's easier to see.

rweigel commented 11 months ago

I see. I was not expecting that based on https://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/software/cdawlib/0MASTERS/00readme.txt, which only mentions spaces for global attributes.

Why would one not want to put CATDESC in the master CDF? Does it ever vary with time?