DESCRIP3

For each Level 3 dimension ($i=$1,...,OBJDESC.NDIM3) there must be DIMSPEC3.DESNUM[$i$] records. The descriptor records may be in any order, but it is recommended that they be in the order 1 through OBJDESC.NDIM3. This record is considered the authoritative source of information for this dimension. A parallel definition can be supplied in the DESCRIP records. There must be a DESCVAL record for each DESCRIP3 record, to specify the grid points along that dimension. An optional DESCSUP record may be present if additional information is required. The START and END fields indicate which Level 0, Level 1, and Level 2 dimensions this particular Level 3 dimension applies to. For example, the user may have observations that have been integrated in height. The data occur over spatial locations (Level 1) and time (Level 2). The START and END fields will range from (0, 0, 0) to (-1, -1, -1) to cover the entire range of all Level 0-Level 2 dimensions. The number of grid points, GPTNUM, will be the number of height levels that were integrated over. Of course, different DESCRIP3 records referring to different Level 3 dimensions are allowed to have their ranges overlap, since different averaging methods can be applied to the same subset of data.

name

RECTYPE

I

is the record type code = 33

DEXSORT

I

NDEX

(bits 0-15) is an index that determines which Level 3 dimension is being described. Counting begins at 0 or 1 as specified in the TEST.SPECB.IDXSTART field. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

RECSORT

(bits 16-31) is the index for sorting DESCRIP3 records with the same NDEX field. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

START

I*

is an array of Level 0, Level 1, and Level 2 dimension grid points over which this record begins to apply. The first OBJDESC.NDIM0 elements correspond to the Level 0 dimensions. The middle OBJDESC.NDIM1 elements correspond to the Level 1 dimensions. The last OBJDESC.NDIM2 elements correspond to the Level 2 dimensions. Counting begins with 0 or 1 as specified in TEST.SPECB.IDXSTART. See the discussion in Section 2.3.2

END

I*

is an array of Level 0, Level 1, and Level 2 dimension grid points over which this record stops applying. The first OBJDESC.NDIM0 elements correspond to the Level 0 dimensions. The middle OBJDESC.NDIM1 elements correspond to the Level 1 dimensions. The last OBJDESC.NDIM2 elements correspond to the Level 2 dimensions. 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

AVGCOD

I

is the averaging method code

0	=	instantaneous
1	=	arithmetic mean (discrete sum)
2	=	continuous integration
3	=	continuous integration over weighting
4	=	arithmetic mean (discrete sum) over a range with unknown steps

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