describe_variable
Read-onlyIdempotent
Get full details for an ICOS variable, including names, unit, dataset coverage, quality flag reading, licence, DOI, and zarr axes for multi-dimensional data.
Instructions
One variable in full: names, unit, which dataset, its coverage, how its quality flag is read, licence and DOI. For a multi-dimensional variable read through zarr (access 'zarr'), its axes with their labels, the slice /query serves (prescribed) and an xarray line for any other slice.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | a variable id from search_variables |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | ||
| doi | No | ||
| ecv | No | the GCOS Essential Climate Variable this observation contributes to; ICOS provides the observation, not the ECV product | |
| axes | No | zarr variables: each extra axis and its labels | |
| name | Yes | ||
| unit | No | ||
| store | Yes | ||
| access | No | query: estimate/get_data/aggregate serve it; zarr: a multi-dimensional variable (e.g. the ONEFlux NEE cube) read with xarray -- see zarr_recipe, and `prescribed` for its /query slice | query |
| domain | No | ||
| license | No | ||
| ecv_role | No | observation, or derived and how (gap-filled, partitioned, aggregated) | |
| variants | No | the multi-dimensional variables this one is the PRESCRIBED slice of; their other slices are read through zarr (describe_variable on one gives the recipe) | |
| long_name | No | ||
| prescribed | No | zarr variables: the id of the preferred slice /query serves | |
| query_kind | Yes | station_time (series at stations), obs_table (ship/cruise observations) or grid (gridded product) | |
| zarr_recipe | No | ||
| ecv_relation | No | 'related' when the variable is outside the ECV's own variable set (NEE to the greenhouse-gas ECV) | |
| quality_flag | No | ||
| dataset_title | Yes | ||
| units_also_as | No | the same quantity in other communities' units: multiply by factor (e.g. umol CO2 m-2 s-1 to gC m-2 d-1 or t CO2 km-2 yr-1) | |
| vocabulary_uri | No | ||
| quality_control | No | how the store's QC flag is read; apply_qc=true applies the recommended rule | |
| cf_standard_name | No | the CF standard name, given only for an exact match | |
| time_coverage_end | No | ||
| vocabulary_issues | No | a gap or an error in CF or in the ECV vocabulary for this variable -- read it before comparing with a CF-named field elsewhere | |
| time_coverage_start | No | ||
| vocabulary_mappings | No | SKOS mappings to NVS terms: the CF standard name (P07) as exactMatch or closeMatch with the conversion from this variable's units (factor, offset, to_units; a factor of -1 x ... is a sign flip), and the ECV (EXV) it contributes to |