WGISS ATT

Data Format Documents,Processes, and Examples

Stuart Doescher, USGSWGISS-18

September 2004Beijing, China

BackgroundBackground

• The “Guidelines on Standard Formats and Data Description

Languages Version 1.0; 18 May 1998” document has served as a

description of formats as they existed in the mid and late 1990’s.

• The guideline recognized that data formats vary, but there is a real

need to exchange data between archive facilities and agencies.

• The original guideline addressed the dominant formats at that time.

• It has been helpful to new systems and archive migration projects,

but is now becoming dated.

The 1998 GuidelineThe 1998 GuidelineTable of ContentsTable of Contents

• Introduction• Concepts• Standard Generic Formats (of the time)• Data Descriptions• Additional Information• Other Aspects• Conclusions(http://wgiss.ceos.org/tssg/archive.doc/formguid.doc)

The 1998 Guideline The 1998 Guideline Formats includedFormats included

• netCDF (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdf/cdf_home.html)• HDF (http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/)• SDTS (http://mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/sdts/)• FITS (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits.htm)• GIF (http://www.webstyleguide.com/graphics/gifs.html)• ISO/IEC 12087 (http://164.214.2.51/ntb/baseline/docs/biif_5/)• SFDU (http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/sfdu_office.html)• GeoTIFF

(http://www.remotesensing.org/geotiff/spec/geotiffhome.html)

There are additional formatsThere are additional formatsCEOS ICF (Base-band Archive Inter-Change Format) - 2001

GERALD (Generic Exchange Raw Archive Level Data)

HRVIR (High Resolution Visible Infra-Red)

ERS-SAR (Earth Resource System Synthetic Aperture Radar)

VEXCEL (proprietary)

SPOT

MPDS (Mobile Packet Data Service)

FRED (Framed Raw Expanded Data)

LTWG (Landsat Technical Working Group)

EAF (Existing Archive Format)

CCF (Computer Compatible Format)

AND OTHERS ………

The basic question seems to be: The basic question seems to be:

What does the next version of the WGISS What does the next version of the WGISS ATT Guideline on Formats contain and how ATT Guideline on Formats contain and how is it presented?is it presented?

To get to these questions lets look at an example.To get to these questions lets look at an example.

Consider a sampling of Consider a sampling of product formats used by the product formats used by the

USGS USGS

• NDF (NLAPS Data Format)

• GEOTIFF

• DTED

• Level 1b

• HDF (Hierachical Data Format)

As an example theAs an example the ATT Format List could include ATT Format List could include

Agency Data Format URL==================================================================

=USGS Landsat 7 NDF http://landsat7.usgs.gov/documents/NLAPSII.pdf

USGS Landsat 7 GEOTIFF http://www.remotesensing.org/geotiff/spec/

USGS SRTM DTED http://www.rivix.com/DTED.cfm

NOAA AVHRR Level 1B http://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/ml/avhrr.html

NASA MODIS HDF http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/

NOAA Nomads Grib http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/on388/

Comments??

ATT will need this type of list of formats as a starter no matter what ever else we do.

As a minimum will publish list at WGISS web

Action ??Action ??• Agencies submit their list of formats

with (agency, data type, format, URL or Document) by Feb 1, 2005 to archive@wgiss.ceos.org

• ATT will publish the list on the Web at http://wgiss.ceos.org/tssg/archive.html

• ATT will present results of action at WGISS – 19 and recommend next steps.