bremen-class: Class to Store Bremen-formatted Data

In oce: Analysis of Oceanographic Data

Class to Store Bremen-formatted Data

Description

This class is for data stored in a format used at Bremen. It is somewhat similar to the odf, in the sense that it does not apply just to a particular instrument. Although some functions are provided for dealing with these data (see “Details”), the most common action is to read the data with read.bremen(), and then to coerce the object to another storage class (e.g. using as.ctd() for CTD-style data) so that specialized functions can be used thereafter.

Slots

data

As with all oce objects, the data slot for bremen objects is a list containing the main data for the object.

metadata

As with all oce objects, the metadata slot for bremen objects is a list containing information about the data or about the object itself.

processingLog

As with all oce objects, the processingLog slot for bremen objects is a list with entries describing the creation and evolution of the object. The contents are updated by various oce functions to keep a record of processing steps. Object summaries and processingLogShow() both display the log.

Modifying slot contents

Although the [[<- operator may permit modification of the contents of bremen objects (see [[<-,bremen-method), it is better to use oceSetData() and oceSetMetadata(), because those functions save an entry in the processingLog that describes the change.

Retrieving slot contents

The full contents of the data and metadata slots of a bremen object may be retrieved in the standard R way using slot(). For example slot(o,"data") returns the data slot of an object named o, and similarly slot(o,"metadata") returns the metadata slot.

The slots may also be obtained with the [[,bremen-method operator, as e.g. o[["data"]] and o[["metadata"]], respectively.

The [[,bremen-method operator can also be used to retrieve items from within the data and metadata slots. For example, o[["temperature"]] can be used to retrieve temperature from an object containing that quantity. The rule is that a named quantity is sought first within the object's metadata slot, with the data slot being checked only if metadata does not contain the item. This [[ method can also be used to get certain derived quantities, if the object contains sufficient information to calculate them. For example, an object that holds (practical) salinity, temperature and pressure, along with longitude and latitude, has sufficient information to compute Absolute Salinity, and so o[["SA"]] will yield the calculated Absolute Salinity.

It is also possible to find items more directly, using oceGetData() and oceGetMetadata(), but neither of these functions can retrieve derived items.

Author(s)

Dan Kelley

See Also

Other classes provided by oce: adp-class, adv-class, argo-class, cm-class, coastline-class, ctd-class, lisst-class, lobo-class, met-class, oce-class, odf-class, rsk-class, sealevel-class, section-class, topo-class, windrose-class, xbt-class

Other things related to bremen data: [[,bremen-method, [[<-,bremen-method, plot,bremen-method, read.bremen(), summary,bremen-method

oce documentation built on Sept. 11, 2024, 7:09 p.m.