Reference

Last updated on 2026-08-20 | Edit this page

Reference Materials

Glossary

  • Interoperability

The ability of data, tools, and systems to work together automatically and reliably with minimal manual effort.

  • Semantic Interoperability

Shared meaning across datasets achieved through standardized vocabularies, units, and metadata conventions.

  • Structural Interoperability

Shared representation achieved through common file formats, data models, and predictable array structures.

  • Technical Interoperability

Shared access achieved through standardized interfaces, protocols, and machine-readable mechanisms.

  • Metadata

Information describing data (e.g., units, variable names, coordinates, attributes) that enables interpretation and reuse.

  • CF Conventions

A widely used climate and forecast metadata standard defining variable names, units, coordinate systems, and grid information.

  • Community Format

A data format widely adopted and maintained by a scientific community (e.g., NetCDF, Zarr, Parquet).

  • NetCDF

A self-describing community format for multidimensional scientific data widely used in climate and atmospheric sciences.

  • NetCDF-CF

A dataset stored in the NetCDF format that follows the CF Conventions metadata standard.

  • Zarr

A cloud-native, chunked, and distributed storage format optimized for large-scale scientific datasets.

  • Parquet

A columnar data format optimized for efficient access to tabular or metadata-rich information.

  • API (Application Programming Interface)

A standardized mechanism that enables software systems to communicate programmatically using defined rules (e.g., HTTP, JSON).

  • HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

An application-layer protocol used for transmitting data over the web. OPeNDAP operates over HTTP.

  • REST (Representational State Transfer)

An architectural style for designing networked applications. RESTful services typically use HTTP methods (GET, POST, etc.) for communication.

  • URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

A standardized address used to locate and access resources on a network (e.g., an OPeNDAP dataset endpoint).

  • OPeNDAP (Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol)

A non-profit organization that created the DAP protocol, and also refers to the suite of software (server and client) they develop to implement it.It is a data transport framework and software that enables researchers to access, subset, and share large, complex scientific datasets—particularly in Earth science—over the internet via HTTP, allowing remote data access without needing to download files locally.

  • DAP (Data Access Protocol)

A network protocol designed to enable remote access to structured scientific datasets. It allows clients to query, subset, and retrieve portions of datasets hosted on remote servers.

  • THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services)

A data server that exposes scientific datasets through standardized protocols such as OPeNDAP and HTTP. The overarching goal of THREDDS is to provide students, educators and researchers with coherent access to a large collection of real-time and archived datasets from a variety of environmental data sources at a number of distributed server sites.

  • ERA5 (ECMWF Reanalysis v5)

A global atmospheric reanalysis dataset produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), widely used in climate research.

  • Catalog

A machine-readable index of datasets describing what exists, where it is located, and how it can be accessed (e.g., STAC, Intake-ESM, ESGF).

  • Cloud-Native Layout

A storage pattern in which datasets are chunked and stored as individual objects in cloud storage, enabling parallel and scalable access.

  • Reanalysis

A consistent, long-term dataset produced by combining models and observations through data assimilation.

  • In-situ Data

Observational data collected directly by instruments located within the environment being studied (e.g., stations, buoys, radiosondes).

  • AI (Artificial Intelligence)

A field of computer science focused on building systems capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as pattern recognition, prediction, or decision-making. In data workflows, AI models often require large-scale structured datasets.

  • ML (Machine Learning)

A subfield of AI focused on algorithms that learn patterns from data and improve performance without explicit programming.

  • CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6)

An international collaborative climate modeling initiative that provides standardized climate model outputs used for research and IPCC assessments.

  • OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium)

An international standards organization that develops open standards for geospatial content and services (e.g., WMS, WFS).

  • RDF (Resource Description Framework)

A data model for describing relationships between things using triples: subject → predicate → object . For example: air_temperature → hasUnit → kelvin. RDF provides the basic structure for expressing statements and linking concepts e.g. semantic relationships.

  • OWL (Web Ontology Language)

A language built on top of RDF for defining ontologies: formal descriptions of concepts, their properties, relationships, and logical constraints. With OWL, you can express things such as: AirTemperature is a type of AtmosphericVariable, or that two concepts from different vocabularies are equivalent.

  • ACDD (Attribute Convention for Data Discovery)

A metadata convention, commonly used with NetCDF datasets, that defines recommended global attributes to improve dataset discovery, identification, and citation.

  • ISO 19115 (Geographic information metadata)

An international standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for describing geographic and geospatial datasets, including information about their content, spatial and temporal extent, quality, access, and responsible parties.

  • DataCite

A metadata schema and infrastructure primarily used to describe and identify research outputs, especially datasets, through persistent identifiers such as DOIs (Digital Object Identifier). DataCite metadata supports dataset discovery, citation, attribution, and linking between research outputs.

  • DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

A persistent identifier assigned to digital research outputs such as datasets, articles, and software. A DOI provides a stable way to identify, cite, and link to a resource even if its web location changes.