File Naming Conventions

Shawn R. Smith

TOGA/COARE Surface Meteorology Data Processing Center
Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies
Florida State University

3 January 1996

In most caxes, data from COARE will be referenced by ship name or site
location; thus the basis for the file names will be the ship call sign or WMO ID number.  (The ID
number will be used for buoys and land stations as well.)  The file name convention will be:

ID.YYMMsDnDv###.nc

The components of the file name include:

  ID:    Up to a 8 number identifier for the site.  May be a ships call sign or a WMO number
         for a surface station or buoy.  A "." will mark the end of the ID.
  YY:    Two digit year.
  MM:    Two digit month.
  sD:    Two digit date of the first record in the file.
  nD:    Three digit value for number of consecutive days in file.
v###:    FSU version number (w/o decimal points).
 .nc:    This will be added to files once they are in NetCDF format.  ASCII
         data files use the .asc extension.

As an example, the following name will be given to the PR-14 data from the Chilean vessel  
Vidal Gormaz (call sign - CCVG):

CCVG.931107011v002

When the data is converted to the NetCDF format the name will change to:

CCVG.931107011v009.nc

This file name represents the version 1.0.0 data from a cruise beginning on 7
November 1993 and lasting for 11 days.