The National Centre for Atmospheric Science General Metadata Standard (NCAS-GENERAL) version 2.1

This documentation is in support of the controlled vocabularies that make up the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) General Data Standard (NCAS-GENERAL). This defines the variables, dimensions and attributes required in netCDF format in order for NCAS observational data to be suitable for archive, meeting the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles for data management. The NCAS-GENERAL standard comprises of a common set of global attributes found in all files, dimensions, variables and variable attributes that are dependent on the deployment mode of the instrument, and further dimensions, variables, and attributes that are associated with the relevant data product. A separate document exists for each data product. In each document, the first seven chapters cover the common and deployment mode sections, and are identical across each document, with the eighth and final chapter containing the requirements of that specific data product.

These documents support the controlled vocabularies found here. In the event of any discrepencies between these documents and the vocabularies, the information in the controlled vocabularies takes precedence.