DESCRIP1

For each Level 1 dimension ($i=$1,...,OBJDESC.NDIM1) there must be DIMSPEC1.DESNUM[$i$] records in this record type. The descriptor records may be in any order, but it is recommended that they be in order of 1 through OBJDESC.NDIM1. This record type is considered the authoritative source of information for this dimension. A parallel description can be placed in the DESCRIP record type. There must be a DESCVAL record for each DESCRIP1 record, to specify the grid points along that dimension. An optional DESCSUP record may be present if additional information is required. An important note: There should be no overlap in the ranges of the Level 2 dimensions, since there cannot be two differing number of grid points along any particular Level 2 dimension. The START and END fields define the ranges of the Level 2 dimensions to which these particular Level 1 dimensions apply. For example, the user may have observations at particular spatial locations that have been made at varying height levels. The spatial locations might make up the Level 2 dimension and the height levels would serve as a the Level 1 dimension. The START and END fields will contain the particular spatial locations that a particular set of height levels apply to.

name

RECTYPE

I

is the record type code = 31

DEXSORT

I

NDEX

(bits 0-15) specifies which Level 1 dimension is being described. Counting begins at 0 or 1 as specified in the TEST.SPECB.IDXSTART field. Note that this index does not refer to an index position of an actual data array but is instead a pointer into the DIMSPEC1.INDEX field. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

RECSORT

(bits 16-31) is the index for sorting DESCRIP1 records with the same NDEX field. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

START

I*

is an OBJDESC.NDIM2-element array of Level 2 dimension grid points over which this record begins to apply. Counting begins with 0 or 1 as specified in TEST.SPECB.IDXSTART. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

END

I*

is an OBJDESC.NDIM2-element array of Level 2 dimension grid points over which this record stops applying. A value of -1 indicates the last grid point of that dimension. Counting begins with 0 or 1 as specified in TEST.SPECB.IDXSTART. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

GPTNUM

I

is the number of grid points along this dimension

DUPNUM

I

is the number of DESCRIP records for this dimension

DESSUP

I

is the number of floating-point values in the SVALS field of the following DESCSUP record. If zero, then there is no DESCSUP record for this dimension

DESFMT

I

is the descriptor format code. This code is explained in Section A.1.1

DESTYPE

I

is the quantity code for the physical quantity that the dimension represents. This code is explained in Section A.1.3.

UNITS

I

is the units code for the physical quantity that the dimension represents. This code is explained in Section A.1.4.

STORG

I

specifies how the values of the descriptor are stored in the DESCVAL record which follows. The possible values are:

0	=	an explicit array of GPTNUM values
1	=	an implicit specification consisting of a (low-value, interval) pair
2	=	an implicit specification consisting of a (low-value, high-value) pair

RESERVE0

I

is reserved for future expansion

RESERVE1

I

is reserved for future expansion