cc: Phil Jones
date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:23:28 +0000
from: Ian Harris
subject: Re: no cost extension to uea grant
to: "Marsh, AKP (Kevin) - SSTD"
Hi Kevin,
On 9 Jan 2008, at 16:09, Marsh, AKP (Kevin) - SSTD wrote:
> Hi Harry,
> Happy New Year, hope you had a good break!
Fine, ta - and you?
> Just wanted to check on the current status of this work with you (yes,
> we've a meeting coming up!).
No date fixed though? I don't see anything in my planner..
Current status is that I'm modifying the programs to work with less
user involvement (ie standardising filenames and so forth). I'm also
modifying the makegrids program to save station count information in
the same NetCDF file as the data (it might encourage people to take
it seriously then).
I think we've decided on a proposal for the procedure. It involves:
1. No decadal files
2. One full-length file that's issued once (maybe twice) a year.
3. One update file that extends the full-length file until it's
reissued.
4. The update file is extended every month, with probably a 2-3 month
lag.
The big issue, (as far as I'm concerned), is that incoming updates
may extend back in time, not just in the update file but also into
the full-length file. For instance, we might get a complete reissue
of all temperature data for a particular country (this happened with
Mali a year or two ago). This presents us with a problem.
When we next add a month to the update file, it will contain the
replaced Mali data. This may well be discontiguous with previous
months that were built from the old Mali data.
I think the only solution is to treat this kind of incoming data
differently to the regular monthly data (BOM, CLIMAT and MCDW). But
this poses problems for the 'single database' strategy.
> Have you been able to work ok remotely from UEA on our systems? And
> when
> do you think you'll be able to come down again?
I can work remotely on your systems but at the moment I'm adjusting
things here. They recompile on your systems without too much trouble.
I don't think I should come down again until the system is ready for
final handover. So not just yet!!!
Cheers
Harry
Ian "Harry" Harris
Climatic Research Unit
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom