FAAM Flight Data File Names

FAAM data file names follow the  CEDA File Name Convention with a number of additional specific constraints listed below.

The file name structure since June 2007 is as follows: 

DataID _ Platform _ Date _ [ Version# ] _ Revision# _ Flight# [ _ Extra ] . extension

or, more precisely for FAAM: 

dataID _ faam _ YYYYMMDD [ _ v# ] _ r# _ fxxx [ _ extra ].ext

where elements in square brackets are optional. Note that the file name is made of 5 mandatory and 2 optional fields separated by underscore signs, plus a file extension separated from the file name body by a dot. Letters appearing in the various fields must be lower case characters. The different fields represent the following variables, with the following syntax.

• DataID identifies the data stored in the file. It can be the name of an instrument, of a group of instruments, of the physical quantity measured by an instrument. This field has the value core for files containing processed data issued from the set of core instruments flown on a particular flight. In some instances, non-core data can also be merged into single files, in which case dataID will have a value referring to all merged non-core data. Note that the dataID parameter is called instrument in the CEDA File Name Convention. Only values of dataID belonging to the CEDA list of standard instrument names will be accepted by the file uploader. If you are a data provider and can't find an adequate value in the list, please contact us.
• Platform The second field (the platform name) must be faam for data collected aboard the FAAM aircraft.
• Date The third field is the date, in the format YYYYMMDD (Year YYYY, Month MM, Day DD). If required, this can be completed by an indication of time, using 2-digit numbers hh (hour), mm (minutes), ss (seconds). The additional [hhmmss] is currently used for dropsonde data.
• *Version v# (lower case v followed by an 3-digit integer greater than or equal to 0) is version number of the processing software v001 stands for the initial version. This was first introduced in June 2007 when the processing software was transferred to a LINUX system. Not all file types include this number.
• *Revision r# (lower case r followed by an integer greater than or equal to 0) is the revision of the flight constants (eg improved calibrations constants). r0 stands for the initial version, r1 for the first revision, etc.
• Flight fxxx is the flight number. It is made of a lower case letter followed by a 3-digit integer. For example, all FAAM flights from March to October 2004 are numbered b001 to b056.
• Extra The extra field is optional and is provided to account for any useful piece of information not covered by the previous 5 fields. Raw data may be distinguished from processed data in this way, although the file name extension (see below) will usually provide a sufficient indication on whether the data is raw or processed. extra may include underscore signs (in other words, extra could be more than one subfield).
• Extension ext is an indication of the file format. A list of accepted file name extensions is provided. Please contact CEDA if the list must be updated to account for a new format (in particular, for raw data produced in an instrument-specific format).

*Users are advised that more than one revision of the data may be present in any flight directory due to reprocessing using improved software or calibration coefficients. In the absence of specialist advice, users are always advised to use the latest revision of the highest version of data in the archive.