The BADC-CSV Format: Meeting user and metadata requirements

The 2007 British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) Users Survey examined the skill base of the BADC's user community. Results indicated a large proportion of users who were familiar with data held in ASCII formats such as comma-separated variables (csv) and there was a high degree of familiarity with spreadsheet programmes (e.g. Excel) for data analysis purposes. These result, combined with the experiences of the BADC staff dealing with user enquiries and assisting data suppliers in preparing data for submission, and the metadata requirements of the BADC, highlighted the need for a new ASCII format to be generated. The BADC-CSV format adheres to metadata conventions covered by the NASA-Ames and netCDF formats, the CF and Dublin Core metadata conventions, the ISO19115 standard and the metadata requirements of the BADC and its sister data centres within the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The format meets end user and data supplier requirements by being a native format for spreadsheet software as well as other commonly used data production and analysis tools (e.g. IDL, MatLab). This paper presents the requirements for the format resulting from the 2007 user survey and data centre requirements, describes the structure of the format and demonstrates the format through short examples. Finally ongoing work to further develop the format is discussed.