missing data and scale/offset standard attributes

[Harvey.Davies at csiro.au]

I understand the frustration that has led to this proposal. Some
important and widely used data sets have valid_range/valid_min/valid_max
as type float when they should be type short matching the data. This
data clearly contravenes the standard conventions in the netCDF User
Guide.



However I do not agree that the solution is to define a convention for
handling such non-standard data. We should keep conventions as few and
simple as possible. Otherwise there will be even more confusion and
non-standard files.



I suggest recipients of such non-standard data sets

1.	Complain to the producer of such data
2.	Write some code to change the attributes to the correct data
type and value
3.	Provide this code to the producer of the data and suggest they
use it to fix their data before further distribution



Harvey Davies, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research,
Private Bag No. 1, Aspendale 3195
E-mail: harvey.davies at csiro.au
Office: 03 9239 4556
Mobile: 04 2241 7563