Documentation of the U.S. Geological Survey Oceanographic Time-Series Measurement Database

Historical experiment data were generated as EPIC-compliant files. In 2016 (corresponding with version 2.0 of this OFR) a python program was developed to convert the EPIC files to CF. In 2019, python programs were developed to generate CF-compliant files directly. Since EPIC is seldom used now (2021), most data will be released only as CF-compliant files; exceptions may occur, especially with relatively old or infrequently used instruments for which Matlab processing scripts for the EPIC convention exist and no CF conversion script is available. If a global attribute named "Conventions" is present in a file, its value will indicate whether the file conforms to EPIC or CF conventions. Files missing this attribute are EPIC-compliant. Table 9 lists additional characteristics for identifying the convention employed.

Table 9. Key differences between Equatorial Pacific Information Collection (EPIC) and Climate and Forecast (CF) files.