Designing Interoperable Data Products with Community Conventions

Abstract:

The HDF Product Designer (HPD) is a cloud-based client-server collaboration tool that can bring existing netCDF-3/4/CF, HDF4/5, and HDF-EOS2/5 products together to create new interoperable data products that serve the needs of the Earth Science community. The tool is designed to reduce the burden of creating and storing data in standards-compliant, interoperable HDF5 files and lower the technical and programming skill threshold needed to design such products by providing a user interface that combines the netCDF-4/HDF5 interoperable feature set with applicable metadata conventions. Users can collaborate quickly to devise new HDF5 products while at the same time seamlessly incorporating the latest best practices and conventions in their community by importing existing data products. The tool also incorporates some expert system features through CLIPS, allowing custom approaches in the file design, as well as easy transfer of preferred conventions as they are being developed. The current state of the tool and the plans for future development will be presented. Constructive input from any interested parties is always welcome.