Terminology Primer

Directory

The CDP system uses a special directory server (LDAP) that keeps track of all the CDP data servers and their datasets that have been implemented. By directory, we mean a searchable list of datasets made available to you by the CDP data servers. You can use the Search Directory panel to sift through the available data servers by specifying a time/space domain or by the presence absence of keywords in the directory entries.

Dataset or Data Collection

A collection of similar data. For example, profile data for a particular ocean region, monthly averaged sea-level data, or current meter data from the TAO array. Each dataset is also of a certain type or dimensionality. Profile data vary in the depth dimension (z), sea-level data vary in the time dimension (t), and current meter data vary in both the depth and time dimension (tz). Note that one CDP server might serve many datasets.

Data Item

A Data item is a single file from a particular dataset. A data item might be a single CTD profile, a sea-level time series at a particular location, or a time series for a particular current mooring from the TAO array.