Talk
In session
Metadata
,
Sept. 4, 2025,
09:00 –
10:15
Exact timing:
09:30 –
09:45
Room info:
Lecture Hall
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon
- GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut - Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
- Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
- GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
To ensure FAIR data (Wilkinson et al., 2016: https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 ), well-described datasets with rich metadata are essential for interoperability and reusability. In Earth System Science, NetCDF is the quasi-standard for storing multidimensional data, supported by metadata conventions such as Climate and Forecast (CF, https://cfconventions.org/ ) and Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD, https://wiki.esipfed.org/Attribute_Convention_for_Data_Discovery_1-3 ).
While NetCDF can be self-describing, metadata often lacks compatibility and completeness for repositories and data portals. The Helmholtz Metadata Guideline for NetCDF (HMG NetCDF) Initiative addresses these issues by establishing a standardized NetCDF workflow. This ensures seamless metadata integration into downstream processes and enhances AI-readiness.
A consistent metadata schema benefits the entire processing chain. We demonstrate this by integrating enhanced NetCDF profiles into selected clients like the Earth Data Portal (EDP, https://earth-data.de ). Standardized metadata practices facilitate repositories such as PANGAEA ( https://www.pangaea.de/ ) and WDCC ( https://www.wdc-climate.de ), ensuring compliance with established norms.
The HMG NetCDF Initiative is a collaborative effort across German research centers, supported by the Helmholtz DataHub. It contributes to broader Helmholtz efforts (e.g., HMC) to improve research data management, discoverability, and interoperability.
Key milestones include:
- Aligning metadata fields across disciplines,
- Implementing guidelines,
- Developing machine-readable templates and validation tools,
- Supporting user-friendly metadata entry.
This presentation outlines key challenges, solutions, and the anticipated impact on the geoscientific community. We will present a first version of NetCDF metadata attribute guidelines and invite you to join this initiative.