Section: 11.13 Compression

11.13 Compression

Per-variable compression means variables may be compressed independently.

Readers access compressed variables transparently, without knowing they are compressed.
Compressed variables must be stored with chunked storage.
Each chunk is compressed or uncompressed independently.
Permits efficient access to small subsets of a large compressed variable without uncompressing entire variable
Better compression can be achieved with chunking parameters. For example, horizontal layers of the atmosphere might be good chunks for a variable that is fairly uniform within a layer, such as temperature.