Non-Binary Environmental Archive Data (NEAD) format

Important note: From 2025 the NEAD format is being transformed into the interoperable CSV (iCSV) format, a formalized and standardized evolution of the NEAD format. Furthermore, iCSV should be backwards compatible with NEAD. More information on the new iCSV format will be linked here in due time.
Acknowledgement: The NEAD format includes NetCDF metadata and is proudly inspired by both SMET and NetCDF formats. NEAD is designed as a long-term data preservation and exchange format.
The NEAD specifications were presented at the "WMO Data Conference 2020 - Earth System Data Exchange in the 21st Century" (Virtual Conference).
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Summary:
The Non-Binary Environmental Data Archive (NEAD) format is being developed as a generic and intuitive format that combines the self-documenting features of NetCDF with human readable and writeable features of CSV. It is designed for exchange and preservation of time series data in environmental data repositories.
License: The NEAD specifications are released to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 "No Rights Reserved" international license. You can reuse the information contained herein in any way you want, for any purposes and without restrictions.