obsarray

❔ What is obsarray?

obsarray is an extension to xarray for

• defining
• storing
• interfacing

with uncertainty and measurement error-covariance information in NetCDF files using standardised metadata.

These datasets that include standardised uncertainty and error-covariance information in so-called ‘digital effects tables’.

📍 Where can obsarray be found?

• The obsarray documentation is available here.
• There are also jupyter notebooks available in the example section.

📋 What can obsarray tool be used for?

Using methods defined by the CoMet UNC Specification (uncertainty metadata naming conventions), obsarray enables users to parameterise their error-covariance information by storing it as attributes to uncertainty variables - creating ‘digital effects tables’.

One important aim of the CoMet Toolkit is to abstract away the complexity of dealing with error-covariances. Using measurement datasets defined in this way using obsarray, you can for example:

• read/write datasets in a way that error-correlation information is preserved.
• propagate dataset uncertainty using punpy – which can directly use the ‘digital effects tables’, so that users typically never have to interact with it.