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Frequently Asked Questions

John Kerfoot edited this page May 23, 2023 · 10 revisions

WikiFrequently Asked Questions

Answers to the most commonly asked questions and issues regarding data set registration, accessibility and archiving.

Categories

Q: How/to whom should I ask questions that are not answered here?

  • Send an email to the Glider DAC administration team. These emails are monitored by a group of team members and will likely result in the quickest response.
  • Send an email to John Kerfoot (Glider DAC support lead). I try respond to emails the same day, but not always.
  • Call my mobile number (send me an email and I will provide it). This is the fastest way to get a hold of me for support questions or issues.

Account Registration

Q: How do I become a registered data provider to the U.S. IOOS Glider Data Assembly Center?

Anyone can become a registered data provider and submit real-time and/or delayed-mode glider data sets to the DAC. Requests for a user account should be emailed to [email protected] with the following information:

  • First and last name of the primary contact person for the group
  • Email address
  • Phone Number
  • Cell phone number
  • Institution
  • Desired user name

You will be contacted by a member of the DAC administration team once the account has been created or if we have any follow up questions. The user account will be created with a temporary password which will be texted to the specified mobile number. You should immediately log in to the DAC data set registration page and change your password by clicking on your user name (top right of the page once you have logged in) and change the password.

While anyone can request a data provider account, we strongly recommend a single, group wide, user account for submitting data sets that should not be tied to an individual person.

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Log In Problems

Q: I am unable to log in with the username and temporary password assigned to me.

We periodically have issues with the log in system that result in a 'Failed to Log In' message. If you encounter this issue, contact us and we will work with you to fix this issue as fast as possible.

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Q: I am unable to log into the ftp server and push files to the DAC.

This is most likely due to a failure in creating the data provider parent directory on the ftp server during account registration. Let us know if you encounter this problem and we will manually create this directory. You will then be able to log into the ftp server and push files.

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Data Set Status

Q: How do I monitor the status of a data set that I have submitted to the DAC?

The status of all data sets submitted to the DAC can be monitored via the IOOS Glider DAC data set status page. These pages display data set status, metadata and NCEI accession status for each registered data set. You can also see missing/orphaned data sets and diagnose potential reasons that a data set may be missing from the DAC.

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Q: I have registered a data set, but has not showed up on the ERDDAP server or the data set status page.

This is typically caused by one or more of the following issues:

  1. No NetCDF files have been submitted by the data provider following registration of the data set
  2. Submitted data files were corrupted during the ftp transfer.
  3. Submitted NetCDF files do not meet the DAC NetCDF specification
  4. The data set description was not added to the ERDDAP catalog.
  5. New data sets are added to the ERDDAP catalog at the top of every hour. Check to see if at least 1 hour has elapsed following data set registration.

Contact the DAC administration support team to follow up. We will diagnose (and fix, if applicable on our end) the problem and suggest corrective measures. We strongly recommend checking the compliance of one or more NetCDF files, prior to uploading them via the ftp server, with the IOOS NetCDF compliance checker web application or command line utility. Make sure to specify that you want to check compliance against the U.S. IOOS Glider DAC specification.

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Q: I registered a data set but the glider was ultimately not deployed. How do I delete the deployment?

You can delete a previously registered deployment using the following process:

  1. Log into the data providers data set registration page.
  2. Navigate to the deployment you want to delete.
  3. Click the 'Delete Deployment' button under the Admin section (bottom right of the page).

It will take some time for the delete event to propagate it's way through the system (registration page, ERDDAP data set and data set status page entry), so be patient. If the deployment is still visible 24 hours after it was deleted, contact the DAC administration team and we will ensure it is removed.

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WMO IDs and GTS

Q: How do I obtain a WMO ID for my glider so that my data set can be released to the Global Telecommunication System (GTS)?

Recent changes to the WMO ID rules specify that a single WMO ID may be used to identify a glider regardless of the WMO region it was deployed in. So, if you have already acquired a WMO ID for a glider, that WMO ID can be used for future deployments of that glider anywhere in the world. If you do not have a WMO ID for a specific glider, you can request one by contacting the DAC administration team and providing the required information.

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Q: How can I have profiles from my data set released to the Global Telecommunication System (GTS)?

A WMO ID, used to identify the glider/platform, is required for all observations released on the GTS. The WMO id must be specified in the wmo_id/wmo_platform_code global attribute and have the gts_ingest global attribute to to "True".

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NCEI Archiving

Q: What is an NCEI accession record?

IOOS has partnered with the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) to provide permanent archival packages of all data sets submitted to the DAC. An archival package provides a permanent location for all versions of the data set (real-time, delayed-mode and modified data sets). Each data set is assigned a unique accession number, similar to to DOI, that is a permanent link to the data set.

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Q: How do I find the NCEI archived data set record?

Data sets are archived only if the following requirement have been met:

  • The data set has been marked as 'Complete' on the data set registration page.
  • The data set has been marked as 'Submit to NCEI on Completion' on the data set registration page.
  • The data set has passed a compliance check.

Please contact the DAC administration team if you feel that all 3 of these requirements have been met.

Assuming these 3 requirements are met, you can use the IOOS Glider DAC Accession Records Catalog to search for the accession records for a given datasetID, partial datasetID, data provider, or glider call sign.

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