1. Is WCS 1.1 adequate for serving netCDF datasets such as those on the servers at Unidata, the University of Florence, George Mason University, NERC, NCDC, and the PFEL?
   
   
   • The main task is to implement and test clients and servers that conform to the new WCS 1.1 spec and experiment with them on a wide range of real-world datasets. From the GALEON perspective, some of the important changes in WCS 1.1 are:
     
     
     • multiple fields in a coverage
     • 3 spatial dimensions
     • 2 time dimensions (e.g., the time a forecast was run and the forecast times within the run)
     • relative time ( e.g., the latest image, the last 5 images, ...)
     • non-spatial dimension (e.g., pressure or density)
     • irregular grids
       
       
   • It will also be important to test a wide variety of data types. Phase 1 focused on "5D" grid datasets of the sort that are generated by weather and climate forecast models. Phase 2 will include other data types:
     
     
     • point or "station" observations
     • vertical profile and trajectory datasets
       
     • swath data from polar orbiting satellites
     • radial data from radar stations
       
       
   • Other investigations in fact address questionable areas in the CF-netCDF encoding:
     
     
     • Documentation for the Coordinate Reference System
     • Representation of point (station) data in CF-netCDF
     • Common Data Model (CDM) augmentation of netCDF data model


2. In the context of serving traditional netCDF datasets, what's the relationship between WCS and other standard specifications?
   
   
   • Is the CSW interface adequate for cataloging the collections of data in question 1 above and how do clients interact with both WCS and CSW?
     
     
     • Catalogs and/or WCS getCapabilities lists?
       The getCapabilities request appears to be inadequate to return a list of all the coverages on a WCS server.
     • Several people have suggested that GALEON Phase 2 include experiments that involve CS-W (Catalog Services for the Web) as well as WCS.
       
       
   • For collections of point data time series (e.g., observations from weather stations, ocean buoys, river gages), what role to WCS, WFS, and SWE/SOS play?
     
     
   • What are the roles of GML dialects (ncML-GML, CSML, GMLJP2) in the context of the GALEON WCS experiments?
     
     There appears to be an accelerating trend to develop new XML schemas for many subdisciplines in the geosciences. Even within the world of GML, many profiles are evolving. Within the GALEON team discussions, at least 3 have come up in the context of methods for characterizing CF-netCDF characteristics in a standard form:
     
     
     • ncML-GML
     • CSML
     • GMLJP2
       
       
   • A Change Request to OWS Common is under way, emanating from WCS, to extend the coverage model with non-spatiotemporal axes, and also to allow coverages not having x and y axes simultaneously (e.g., to have x/t slices). How does that affect the GALEON applications (and what are their requirements in this respect)?

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