OGC Seeks Public Comment on Standard for Encoding Linked Data Graphs in netCDF Files

NetCDF-LD is an approach for constructing Linked Data descriptions using the metadata and structures found in netCDF files. Comments are due by June 24, 2022.

NetCDF is a format for encoding array-oriented scientific data, particularly in many Earth & Space Science domains. It is common practice to aid interoperability of netCDF files in the Earth sciences by using the Climate and Forecasting (CF) convention and also the Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD). Several communities are defining additional netCDF conventions for describing the semantics relating to their different domains. As the concurrent use of multiple – and possibly clashing or conflicting – netCDF conventions spreads, the problem of finding a common mechanism to validate and interpret metadata embedded inside netCDF files grows. The candidate netCDF-LD Standard offers a solution to that problem.

Linked Data (LD) is a World Wide Web Consortium best practice for encoding and publishing metadata to expose and connect data both within individual datasets and across multiple datasets. LD also allows dataset descriptions to become more useful by running semantically enabled queries across datasets. Linked Data uses the W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) to express the information and relationships. Publishing netCDF file descriptions using LD methods presents the user community with an opportunity to benefit from LD’s improved exposure and connection and, in turn, make published data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR).