How to Prepare Atmospheric Model Data for Publication with the ATMODAT Standard

Atmospheric Models are a relevant element of Climate Research. Access to this atmospheric model data is not only of interest to a wide scientific community but also to public services, companies, politicians and citizens. The state-of-the-art approach to make the data available is to publish them via a data repository that adheres to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles⁽¹⁾. A FAIR publication of research data implies that the data are described with rich metadata and that the data and metadata meet relevant discipline-specific standards. 

A very comprehensive data standard has been developed for the climate model output within the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP)⁽²⁾, which largely builds upon the Climate and Forecast Metadata Conventions (CF Conventions)⁽³⁾. Nevertheless, there are many areas of atmospheric modelling, where data standardisation according to the CMIP standard is not possible or very difficult. To facilitate this task, the ATMODAT standard⁽⁴⁾, a quality guideline for the FAIR and open publication of atmospheric model data, was recently established. 

The ATMODAT standard defines a set of requirements that aim at ensuring a high degree of reusability of published atmospheric model data. The requirements include the use of the netCDF file format⁽⁵⁾, the application of the CF conventions⁽³⁾, a data publication with a DataCite DOI⁽⁶⁾, and rich and standardised metadata for the data files, the DOI and on the landing page. 

The atmodat data checker⁽⁷⁾ was developed to support data producers in checking if their file metadata comply with the ATMODAT standard. 

We demonstrate the application of the ATMODAT standard to selected datasets from a building-resolving atmospheric model, the "grassroots" AEROCOM MIP, and weather pattern data derived from an atmospheric reanalysis. We explain the practical workflow involved to achieve an ATMODAT-compliant data publication and discuss the various challenges.

 

⁽¹⁾ https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
⁽²⁾ https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-201-2020
⁽³⁾ https://cfconventions.org/
⁽⁴⁾ https://doi.org/10.35095/WDCC/atmodat_standard_en_v3_0
⁽⁵⁾ https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/
⁽⁶⁾ https://datacite.org/
⁽⁷⁾ https://github.com/AtMoDat/atmodat_data_checker