Tom Gross, Coast Survey Development Laboratory, NOAA/NOS
Steve Hankin, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA/OAR
CJ Beegle-Krause, Office of Response and Restoration, NOAA/NOS
Frank Aikman, Coast Survey Development Laboratory, NOAA/NOS

Abstract

NOAA and UCAR's Unidata Program sponsored a workshop to develop
Community Standards for Unstructured Grids on October 16 and 17, 2006 in
Boulder, Colorado. The goal of the workshop was to agree upon a
provisional profile (i.e. metadata standards) for unstructured grid data
in NetCDF based upon an evaluation of the existing candidate profiles
and issues that were identified at the workshop. Topics reviewed at the
workshop consisted of unstructured metadata standards in use today,
metadata standards in the IOOS context, CF conventions, XMDF data
specification, and interoperability with users and processing
applications.  Breakout sessions focused on developing a common vision
of needs, grids in detail, and developing a core of conventions that can
be regarded as a community starting point.  The discussions begun at the
workshop will be continued through an open, moderated web site, leading
to a well-tested and widely-accepted standard for publication.