root/cf-conventions/trunk/docbooksrc/the-book-info.xml

<bookinfo>
    <title>NetCDF Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions</title>
    <subtitle>Version 1.4, 12 December, 2008</subtitle>
 
    <authorgroup><title>Original Authors</title>    
        <author>
            <firstname>Brian</firstname><surname>Eaton</surname>
            <affiliation><orgname> NCAR </orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
        <author>
            <firstname>Jonathan</firstname><surname>Gregory</surname>
            <affiliation><orgname> Hadley Centre, UK Met Office </orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
        <author>
            <firstname>Bob</firstname><surname>Drach</surname>
            <affiliation><orgname> PCMDI, LLNL </orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
        <author>
            <firstname>Karl</firstname><surname>Taylor</surname>
            <affiliation><orgname> PCMDI, LLNL </orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
        <author>
            <firstname>Steve</firstname><surname>Hankin</surname>
            <affiliation><orgname> PMEL, NOAA </orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
    </authorgroup>


    <authorgroup><title>Additional Authors</title>
      <author>
        <firstname>John</firstname><surname>Caron</surname>
        <affiliation><orgname> UCAR </orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
      <author>
        <firstname>Rich</firstname><surname>Signell</surname>
        <affiliation><orgname> USGS </orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
      <author>
        <firstname>Phil</firstname><surname>Bentley</surname>
        <affiliation><orgname> Hadley Centre, UK Met Office </orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
      <author>
        <firstname>Greg</firstname><surname>Rappa</surname>
        <affiliation><orgname> MIT </orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
    </authorgroup>

    <othercredit>
        <contrib>
            <para>
            Many others have contributed to the development of CF through their 
            participation in discussions about proposed changes.
            </para>
        </contrib>
    </othercredit>


    <revhistory>
        <revision>
            <date>14 June 2004</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para>Added <xref linkend="lambert-azimuthal-equal-area"/>.</para></listitem>
                        <listitem><para><xref linkend="polar-stereographic"/>: Added <varname>latitude_of_projection_origin</varname> map parameter.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
        <revision>
            <date>1 July 2004</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para><xref linkend="scalar-coordinate-variables"/>: Added note that use of scalar coordinate variables inhibits interoperability with COARDS conforming applications.</para></listitem>
                        <listitem><para><xref linkend="multiple-forecasts-from-single-analysis"/>: Added <varname>positive</varname> attribute to the scalar coordinate p500 to make it unambiguous that the pressure is a vertical coordinate value.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
         <revision>
            <date>20 September 2004</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para><xref linkend="cell-methods"/>: Changed several incorrect occurances of the cell method <varname>"standard deviation"</varname> to <varname>"standard_deviation"</varname>.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
        <revision>
            <date>22 October 2004</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para>Added <xref linkend="lambert-conformal-projection"/>.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
        <revision>
            <date>25 November 2005</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para><xref linkend="atmosphere-hybrid-height-coordinate"/>: Fixed definition of atmosphere hybrid height coordinate.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
        <revision>
            <date>21 March 2006</date>
            <revdescription>
                <para>
                    <orderedlist spacing="compact">
                        <listitem><para>Added <xref linkend="azimuthal-equidistant"/>.</para></listitem>
                        <listitem><para>Added <xref linkend="atmosphere-natural-log-pressure-coordinate"/>.</para></listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                </para>
            </revdescription>
        </revision>
        
        <revision>
          <date>17 January 2008</date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem><para>
                  <xref linkend="preface"/>: Changed text to refer to rules of CF governance, and provisional status.
              </para></listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                  <xref linkend="coordinate-types"/>, <xref linkend="coordinate-system"/>: Made changes regarding use of the axis attribute to identify horizontal coordinate variables.
              </para></listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                  Changed document version to 1.1.
              </para></listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>

        <revision>
          <date><emphasis role="newtext">4 May 2008</emphasis></date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  <emphasis role="newtext"><xref linkend="grid-mappings-and-projections"/>, <xref linkend="appendix-grid-mappings"/>
                  : Additions and revisions to CF 
                  grid mapping attributes to support the 
                  specification of coordinate reference 
                  system properties
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/18">(Trac ticket #18)</ulink>.</emphasis>
                </para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                 <emphasis role="newtext"><xref linkend="table-supported-units"/>
                 : Corrected Prefix for Factor "1e-2" from "deci" to "centi".
                 <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/25">(Trac ticket #25)</ulink>.</emphasis>
              </para></listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                 <emphasis role="newtext">Changed document version to 1.2.</emphasis>
              </para></listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>

        <revision>
          <date><emphasis role="newtext">15 July 2008</emphasis></date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  <emphasis role="newtext"><xref linkend="flags"/>, <xref linkend="attribute-appendix"/>,
                  <xref linkend="standard-name-modifiers"/>
                  : Enhanced the Flags definition to support bit field notation using
                  a <varname>flag_masks</varname> attribute.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/26">(Trac ticket #26)</ulink>.</emphasis>
                </para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                 <emphasis role="newtext">Changed document version to 1.3.</emphasis>
              </para></listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>

        <revision>
          <date>9 October 2008</date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  Fixed defect in <xref linkend="atm-sigma-coord-ex"/>.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/30">(Trac ticket #30)</ulink>.
                </para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  Fixed defect in <xref linkend="coordinate-system"/>.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/32">(Trac ticket #32)</ulink>.
                </para>
              </listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>

        <revision>
          <date>7 November 2008</date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  Fixed defect in wording of <xref linkend="coordinate-system"/>. 
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/35">(Trac ticket #35)</ulink>.
                </para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  Fixed defect related to subsection headings in <xref linkend="dimensionless-v-coord"/>.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/36">(Trac ticket #36)</ulink>.
                </para>
              </listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>


        <revision>
          <date><emphasis role="newtext">10 December 2008</emphasis></date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  <emphasis role="newtext">Changes related to removing ambiguity in <xref linkend="cell-methods"/>.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/17">(Trac ticket #17)</ulink>.</emphasis>
                </para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem><para>
                 <emphasis role="newtext">Changed document version to 1.4.</emphasis>
              </para></listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>


        <revision>
          <date><emphasis role="newtext">11 December 2008</emphasis></date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  <emphasis role="newtext">Added grid mappings Lambert Cylindrical Equal Area, Mercator, and Orthographic to <xref linkend="appendix-grid-mappings"/>.
                  <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/34">(Trac ticket #34)</ulink>.</emphasis>
                </para>
              </listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>


        <revision>
          <date>12 December 2008</date>
          <revdescription><para>                
            <orderedlist spacing="compact">                
              <listitem>
                <para>
                  Fixed defect in Mercator section of <xref linkend="appendix-grid-mappings"/> by updating to version 12 of Grid Map Names (see <ulink url="http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/wiki/GridMapNames?version=12"/>).
                  
                </para>
              </listitem>
            </orderedlist>
          </para></revdescription>
        </revision>
        

    </revhistory>
        
    <abstract>
        <title>Abstract</title>
        <para>
            This document describes the CF conventions for
            climate and forecast metadata designed to promote
            the processing and sharing of files created
            with the netCDF Application Programmer Interface
            <biblioref linkend="netcdf"/>. 
            The conventions define metadata that
            provide a definitive description of what the data
            in each variable represents, and of the spatial
            and temporal properties of the data. This enables
            users of data from different sources to decide
            which quantities are comparable, and facilitates
            building applications with powerful extraction,
            regridding, and display capabilities.
        </para>
        <para>
            The CF conventions generalize and extend the
            COARDS conventions <biblioref linkend="coards"/>. 
            The extensions
            include metadata that provides a precise
            definition of each variable via specification of
            a standard name, describes the vertical locations
            corresponding to dimensionless vertical coordinate
            values, and provides the spatial coordinates of
            non-rectilinear gridded data. Since climate and
            forecast data are often not simply representative
            of points in space/time, other extensions provide
            for the description of coordinate intervals,
            multidimensional cells and climatological time
            coordinates, and indicate how a data value is
            representative of an interval or cell. This
            standard also relaxes the COARDS constraints
            on dimension order and specifies methods for
            reducing the size of datasets.
        </para>
    </abstract>
    
</bookinfo>