File Formats

Several file formats are available from the CCHDO:

CF/netCDF

A netCDF 4 format following the Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions version 1.8.
The conventions are described at:
http://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-1.8/cf-conventions.html

We are using a profile discrete sampling geometry with an incomplete multidimensional array representation described in section 9.3.2. Also informative is Appendix H, which provides examples of the features described in Section 9. A rigorous format description for our specific data files is in process.

Exchange

The WHP Exchange format is a text-based format for bottle and CTD data.
The format is described at:
https://exchange-format.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

The source code for the format description is available on GitHub; we invite pull requests and the opening of issues.
The legacy format description is also available.

netCDF (WHP)

The (WHP) netCDF files are COARDS compliant, one station per file.
A primer is available.
The variable names inside WHP netCDF files will be the parameter names as described by the parameters section.

WOCE

The legacy WOCE formats are still provided by the CCHDO.
The summary file format is described by chapter 3 of the WOCE manual.
The bottle, CTD, and quality flag descriptions are described by chapter 4 of the WOCE manual.