DEPTH missing?

[jenseva]

Proponent(s): @jenseva
Moderator: @OceanGlidersCommunity/format-maintainers

Describe the error
It looks like details for a depth variable are missing from the documentation. This variable doesn't fit into the PARAM section as it is one of the coordinate variables. Also, this var has attributes that are unique to it in the spec.

Example
Here are some attributes that I think should be documented:
:_CoordinateAxisType = "Height";
:_CoordinateZisPositive = "down";
:axis = "Z";
:positive = "down";
:reference_datum = "sea-surface";

Potential solution
Add a description for this variable somewhere and specify the attributes for it.

Platforms affected
All

[emmerbodc]

Thanks Jen. There is a DEPTH parameter in the OG1 vocab collection so at the moment its being recorded under the same attributes as any other PARAM variable

e.g in example file

float GLIDER_DEPTH(N_MEASUREMENTS) ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:_FillValue = NaNf ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:long_name = "Depth (spatial coordinate) relative to water surface in the water body" ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:units = "m" ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:standard_name = "" ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:vocabulary = "https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/OG1/current/DEPTH/" ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:ancillary_variables = "GLIDER_DEPTH_QC" ;
GLIDER_DEPTH:sensor = "INSTRUMENT_DATA LOGGERS_sg558" ;

If we want additional attributes for this parameter, I guess we would need to have to mention this specifically somewhere else.

[jenseva]

@emmerbodc I did see and use the parameter vocabulary for the depth parameter. The little thing I noticed is that in the param section the manual specifies that parameters have coordinates of time, longitude, latitude and depth. So it seems that depth is inconsistent with the other params.

It was easy enough to figure out what to do. This seems to be only a minor inconsistency, but I recommend that later we add a bit about the depth var. The depth attributes will probably spark some discussion and warrant assigning this to 1.X?

[vturpin]

Indeed attribute of depth should/could be discussed?
I'll tag this issue as 1.X then.

[emmerbodc]

agreed in meeting yesterday to add depth in the manual to the co-ordinates section. I'll close this issue when this PR request goes in