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As described in the GLIMS data transfer format specification (see the
"Proposal for RC --> NSIDC data transfer methodology: Rev.
1.11" email from Bruce Raup dated Thu, 27 Sep 2001 10:22:02),
the results of an analysis will be contained in multiple files. Herein we
propose a naming convention for these files.<br><br>
Although we do not constrain file names to the DOS 8.3 format, we do
retain 3-letter extensions to designate the file types:<br><br>
ASCII files:<br>
.pvl for Parameter-Value Language files<br>
.tsv for Tab-Separated Value format files<br>
.end for Endnote format files <br><br>
ESRI Shapefiles:<br>
.shp for the shape file<br>
.shx for the index file accompanying a shape file<br>
.dbf for the dBASE table<br><br>
Multiple glaciers in a region may be analyzed in one "analysis
session," and the results conveyed in a single "analysis
package." NSIDC must be able to associate the segments in the
shapefile with the analysis session that produced them. Each segment in a
shapefile will be identified by its associated glacierID, but because
there may be multiple analyses of any one glacier over time, we ask that
there be only one analysis of any given glacier in an "analysis
package."<br><br>
In an analysis package, the basename (everything in the filename before
the period that sets off the extension) should be common for the .pvl,
.tsv, .shp, .shx, and .dbf files. A suggested convention for the
basename is GLIMS_Region_number as NNN, an abbreviated (8 character or
less) geographic placename for the specific region analyzed, and the date
the analysis was completed in YYYYMMDD format. This creates a basename of
at most 19 characters.<br><br>
For example, an analysis of glaciers in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska
(GLIMS region 4) done on August 18th, 2002 would have a basename of
004CHUGACH20020818. If during the transfer the basename is
truncated to 8 characters by some protocol, the most important
identifying information should still be visible (e.g.
004CHU~1.pvl)<br><br>
All the files for one analysis session should be packaged into a gzipped
tar file (unix) or a zip file (DOS/Windows), conforming to the basename
convention, e.g. 004CHUGACH20020818.tar.gz or
004CHUGACH20020818.zip.<br><br>
For a file containing literature references (*.end), the basename may not
be appropriate, because the references could refer to multiple regions or
be from multiple RCs. Links to the glaciers referenced in the
documents will be made through the information in the file, so the file
naming convention is not critical. However, we would like to avoid
receiving files with duplicate names, so we suggest a convention of first
author surname plus an 8-character (maximum) geographic placename plus a
publication year, appended by a, b, c, etc., if necessary. For example,
BISHOPHIMILAYA1997a.end.<br><br>
Comments are welcome.<br><br>
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Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa, Ph.D. %%% Emergent IT, Inc. <br>
ECS Science Coordinator for the National Snow and Ice Data Center <br>
Campus Box 449 / 1540 30th St. <br>
Boulder, CO 80309 <br>
Phone: (303) 492-1445 FAX: (303) 492-2468 <br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://spot.colorado.edu/~khalsa" eudora="autourl">http://spot.colorado.edu/~khalsa</a><br>
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