[esip-semantictech] [EXTERNAL] Re: NASA GCMD Keywords Version 9.0 Released (2019-11-12)

Wed Jan 15 09:00:03 EST 2020

With the disclaimer that I too have become embroiled in (and occasionally instigated) measurement convention dust-ups around whether the granularity is too fine | coarse:

Maybe it is time to admit that we will *never* achieve universal or maybe even widespread agreement on which convention (CF, CSDMS, GCMD / UMM-Var, Airborne Atmospheric Chemistry, SWEET, etc.) properly addresses what level of granularity.

Maybe we should devote our energy instead to describing and even quantifying the level of granularity of the different conventions and working out how to provide scalable SKOS-ish bridges among them.
—
Christopher Lynnes   NASA/GSFC    301-614-5185
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” A. de St. Exupery

On 1/15/20, 05:12, "esip-semanticweb on behalf of Siri Jodha Khalsa via esip-semanticweb" <esip-semanticweb-bounces at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-semanticweb-bounces at lists.esipfed.org> on behalf of esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org>> wrote:

All,

Last summer ESDIS conducted a review<https://rms.earthdata.nasa.gov/review.req#/r:REV-492> of a proposed evolution of ESDIS's Unified Metadata Model - Variables (UMM-Var). From the Introduction (since some of you may not have access to the JAMA review system, emphasis mine):

The UMM Variables Model (UMM-Var) has a field called 'MeasurementName', which allows metadata curators to provide community-sourced names to further describe variable data, and hence the measurements which these data variables describe. The UMM-Var encourages tagging of variables with standardized Measurement Names that can be surfaced in NASA's Earthdata Search when users conduct an End-to-End Services search and discovery workflow, and can help cluster similar variables, even when their native names are quite dissimilar. The UMM-Var approach to Measurement Names is to tag (or associate) variables with standard Measurements from community-reviewed sources that help identify the most important characteristics of the variable, i.e., the object of the measurement, and the quantity being measured. The mechanism with which we do this is the subject of this review.

The purpose of this review is to determine if the recommended approach and revised field structure for Measurement Names is appropriate for all stakeholders who will be adding and populating Measurement Names in UMM-Var records. The goal is to have a high-quality, normalized, and structured set of Measurement Names that are semantically-interoperable.

An additional purpose of this review is to ensure that appropriate community sources of Measurement Names are being captured. We are starting out with a "seed" list here. There may be additional sources of Measurement Names that could be considered and NASA should be aware of these when populating UMM-Var records in the Common Metadata Repository (CMR).

Note: This review is not just about the Measurement Names, but the approach for making them controlled and the revised field structure in the UMM-Var. These go hand-in-hand. We also want to make sure we are looking at the right sources for the Measurement Names. We are not making up new Measurement Names, just deriving them from well-vetted community sources. The list in the proposal is the preliminary list to "seed" the Keyword Management System, and that will expand over time as we add additional Measurement Names
The review generated a lot of discussion about GCMD vs CSMDS, SWEET, CF, ENVO, etc., and how to manage community-contributed terms and vocabularies.  I have added the manager of that review, Simon Cantrell, to this thread to hopefully 1) solicit his input on the current discussion, 2) explain the status of UMM-Var and 3) also explain why the GCMD Measurement Names seem to entirely ignore where UMM-Var appeared to be headed, i.e. 'MeasurementName' is composed of MeasurementIdentifiers, MeasurementObject, MeasurementQuantity, MeasurementContextMedium and MeasurementUnits, each of which is a controlled list.

Cheers,

SiriJodha

On 1/14/20 4:46 PM, Stevens, Tyler B. (GSFC-423.0)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies] wrote:

Siri-Jodha,

Regarding the measurement keywords, the EOSDIS data centers needed a more fine-grained list of specific measurements (e.g.atmosphere_absorption_optical_thickness_due_to_black_carbon_ambient_aerosol_at_532nm) than the science keywords offered.

The recommendation for this was put forward in an ESO review, approved by ESDIS, and there is a preliminary list of 100 measurements. We plan to put forward additional measurement keywords in an upcoming keyword release,  and we can add interested folks

here in that review. The measurement keywords specifically support the NASA UMM Variables Model (UMM-Var) evolution which has a field called 'MeasurementName' that  allows metadata curators to provide community sourced names to further describe variable

data.

We are also planning to talk to the EOSDIS data centers and others about their data format keywords in preparation for an ESO review. The end-user goal is to allow users to search for data specifically by its format and to address the following use case:

As a user, I want to search for collections with granules that have a specific data format (e.g., NetCDF, HDF5, etc).

The initially discussion here has been very helpful.

Thanks,

Tyler Stevens
KBR | Senior Discipline Engineer, NASA EED-2

Office: 301-851-8113 | Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov<mailto:Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov>

________________________________
From: esip-semanticweb <esip-semanticweb-bounces at lists.esipfed.org><mailto:esip-semanticweb-bounces at lists.esipfed.org> on behalf of Siri Jodha Khalsa via esip-semanticweb <esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org><mailto:esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2020 4:08 PM
To: esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org> <esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org><mailto:esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [esip-semantictech] NASA GCMD Keywords Version 9.0 Released (2019-11-12)

I'm curious whether the ESIP semantic community has any opinions on these two controlled vocabularies.

One question I have is why a measurement keyword list was necessary when GCMD already has the science keywords (a source for the original SWEET). i.e. why not integrate measurements (which are represented as variables in the science keywords) into the science keywords?

the data format list is even more perplexing to me. "incidence angle file" is a format? Georeferenced TIFF in addition to GeoTIFF?  DV? (digital value?) is a format?  KML as well as OGC KML? ASCII and text (what about unicode?) DEM, if this refers to digital elevation models with a .DEM extension from USGS, are ASCII files.

Many formats are subtypes of other formats listed. Wouldn't a better approach be to list the encodings (a much smaller list, which would tell users how to read the data with software) and then add the conventions that have been applied (e.g. CF for netCDF or GRIB for binary). For the encodings list, why not start with mime types?

sjs

On 11/12/19 5:00 PM, Stevens, Tyler B. (GSFC-423.0)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies] via esip-semanticweb wrote:

The NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) staff is pleased to announce the release of the GCMD keywords version 9.0. Version 9.0 consists of two new keyword schemes: (1) Measurement Name and (2) Granule Data Format.

The Measurement Name<https://gcmdservices.gsfc.nasa.gov/kms/concepts/concept_scheme/MeasurementName/?format=csv> list is a preliminary set of (~100) keywords that represent an observable property, usually geophysical, geo-biophysical, physical, or chemical. The Granule Data Format<https://gcmdservices.gsfc.nasa.gov/kms/concepts/concept_scheme/GranuleDataFormat/?format=csv> list of keywords represent the format of the data that is distributed by the data center.

The keywords help facilitate the classification and discovery of Earth Science data by providing a rich vocabulary for characterizing the data. The GCMD keywords are used by hundreds of data providers worldwide for categorizing the ~33,000 records stored in the Common Metadata Repository<http://earthdata.nasa.gov/cmr>.
For more information about the keywords and how to access them, please visit the Keyword Landing Page.<https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords> Questions about the keywords can be submitted to support at earthdata.nasa.gov<mailto:support at earthdata.nasa.gov> or directed to Valerie Dixon at valerie.dixon at nasa.gov<mailto:valerie.dixon at nasa.gov>.

_______________________________________________

esip-semanticweb mailing list

esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-semanticweb at lists.esipfed.org>

https://lists.esipfed.org/mailman/listinfo/esip-semanticweb<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lists.esipfed.org_mailman_listinfo_esip-2Dsemanticweb&d=DwMD-g&c=ApwzowJNAKKw3xye91w7BE1XMRKi2LN9kiMk5Csz9Zk&r=ClhE-fOXVws9KIK2m9XESFX-807X65oCtO3rphfxx2E&m=EG8U-BXyuZvGMMlWA_PVLxkC6Vh4j5BTuWQEPBKdXyc&s=TP_AfLZv4ZRU2M_bc5sHF-yPGcMAmyEN8XdcAbpPwYE&e=>

--

Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE

National Snow and Ice Data Center

University of Colorado

Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976

http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cires.colorado.edu_-7Ekhalsa&d=DwMD-g&c=ApwzowJNAKKw3xye91w7BE1XMRKi2LN9kiMk5Csz9Zk&r=ClhE-fOXVws9KIK2m9XESFX-807X65oCtO3rphfxx2E&m=EG8U-BXyuZvGMMlWA_PVLxkC6Vh4j5BTuWQEPBKdXyc&s=VTw7ReildGiAwFGiqYlC1SoansU6OP0UWrnir7pynrk&e=>

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__orcid.org_0000-2D0001-2D9217-2D5550&d=DwMD-g&c=ApwzowJNAKKw3xye91w7BE1XMRKi2LN9kiMk5Csz9Zk&r=ClhE-fOXVws9KIK2m9XESFX-807X65oCtO3rphfxx2E&m=EG8U-BXyuZvGMMlWA_PVLxkC6Vh4j5BTuWQEPBKdXyc&s=nP-FaYmd88tiUvCLMjekdWMhICOYNP2L7Mxn6ya3ANQ&e=>

--

Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE

National Snow and Ice Data Center

University of Colorado

Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976

http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cires.colorado.edu_-7Ekhalsa&d=DwMG-g&c=ApwzowJNAKKw3xye91w7BE1XMRKi2LN9kiMk5Csz9Zk&r=wGUjZntCVZd_0RfHkUyi5nt60hYIHfuz8TuYqGTTTOIC3GyzxW-xjOqs-Ck3ToTH&m=oz9a0L5ETVGh6EuDL7NBLNbHUlgh5DEMi4hdFdk9VCM&s=VrxEOXeDhOwA38mZ_XNhvr2y2zNFLvjOB7zQajoV1Ng&e=>

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__orcid.org_0000-2D0001-2D9217-2D5550&d=DwMG-g&c=ApwzowJNAKKw3xye91w7BE1XMRKi2LN9kiMk5Csz9Zk&r=wGUjZntCVZd_0RfHkUyi5nt60hYIHfuz8TuYqGTTTOIC3GyzxW-xjOqs-Ck3ToTH&m=oz9a0L5ETVGh6EuDL7NBLNbHUlgh5DEMi4hdFdk9VCM&s=Nv00kv7GRaeDFSOrceGWguDGN1Mn9-i-t4DFTN04VLk&e=>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.esipfed.org/pipermail/esip-semanticweb/attachments/20200115/97b5a5bf/attachment-0001.htm>