Formats
Ocean data has been stored and made available in many formats since marine science began. Everything from curated physical objects, to data available upon request, through to data available instantly through modern services.
ASCII
NetCDF
Network Common Data Format (netCDF) from Unidata is a widely used binary format for the exchange of marine data. There are a number of netCDF conventions that build on the basic netCDF standard that are common to many implementations of netCDF:
- COARDS for various basic attributes
- UDUNITS for units
- Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions for metadata
- Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (ACDD) for discovery metadata
Examples of marine netCDF formats include:
- SeaDataNet netCDF, implemented using the CF Conventions, plus extensions
- Argo netCDF
- OceanSITES Data Format
- MEOP netCDF
- OceanGliders netCDF
- IOOS data standards, including netCDF formats
- IMOS netCDF conventions