Depositing Data at CEDA: A step by step guide
Introduction
CEDA will accept data relevant to atmospheric and earth observation fields. This includes a wide range of instrumental, satellite, aircraft, observations, analyses and model datasets of interest to the scientific community. To archive data with CEDA please follow the steps below (please also see the FAQ's, video tutorial, and webinar).
Step by step guide
Once you have collected/produced your atmospheric or earth observation data; processed, calibrated, validated and quality checked it and prepared it for archiving using correctly applied standard data formats (for example, NetCDF should adhere to the CF conventions and have good quality metadata including global attributes) and meaningful filenames, you are now ready to upload it to the CEDA archive, using the following steps.
1. Register for a CEDA account.
2. Go to arrivals.ceda.ac.uk and login with your CEDA username and password.
3. Click begin. You need to agree to the deposit agreement the first time you use the service.
4. Click browse deliveries.
5. Choose an existing delivery directory or create a new delivery directory by clicking on 'new directory'.
6. Add a suitable name for your delivery e.g. the project, instrument name, model name or what the data contains, etc. and either provide a link to an existing CEDA catalogue dataset record or follow the circled link to generate one now. Adding the information this way helps keep the record and the data together.
7. To generate a new record, fill in the form (example below) with as much information (metadata) about your dataset as you can. Each box has help information if you click on the "i" icon. There are also example templates you can adapt - use the "Show Example" button. Further down this form you can add Project, Instrument or Computation details and can look up and reuse existing records in our catalogue. (This information was previously supplied in a "metadata.yaml" file - one of either a url to an existing record, a newly created record or a metadata.yaml file is required to submit data)
Save and preview the record, and go back and edit if required. Once it is complete you can submit it for review by the CEDA team, and proceed to upload your data.
8. Upload your files using the following tools if appropriate. Unzip zipped files, fix bad names (this removes unusual characters and spacing), remove empty directories and remove zero length files.
You can also upload your data via FTP or RSYNC (more information can be found on the 'other upload method' button). If you use these methods you still need to come back to the web interface to submit the data.
9. Click check Review submission button.
10. Confirm Submission.
11. A CEDA contact will check the files and move them to the CEDA archive. Catalogue records will be created to make your data discoverable (using the metadata you supplied in step 7). This takes time, so please be patient with us.
12. Finally, we will ask you to review these catalogue records, and when all checks are complete your dataset will be published.
13. If you requested a DOI for your dataset, it can then be provided.