DOC: Example of data output for archival

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 
 ## [0.X.X] - 2023-XX-XX
+* Documentation
+  * Added example of how to export data for archival
 * Maintenance
   * Implemented unit tests for cleaning warnings
   * Use pip install for readthedocs

docs/archival.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+Building data files for archival at NASA SPDF
+=============================================
+
+The codes and routines at pysatNASA are designed for end-users of NASA data
+products. However, pysat in general has also been used to build operational
+instruments for generating archival data to be uploaded to the Space Physics
+Data Facility (SPDF) at NASA.
+
+In general, such instruments should include separate naming conventions. An
+example of this is the REACH data, where netCDF4 files are generated for
+archival purposes as part of the `ops_reach` package, but can be accessed by
+the end user through pysatNASA.
+
+In general, a ``pysat.Instrument`` object can be constructed for any dataset.
+Full instructions and conventions can be found
+`here <https://pysat.readthedocs.io/en/latest/new_instrument.html>`_.  In the
+case of the REACH data, the operational code reads in a series of csv files and
+updates the metadata according to user specifications. Once the file is loaded,
+it can be exported to a netCDF4 file via pysat. In the simplest case, this is
+
+::
+
+  reach = pysat.Instrument(inst_module=aero_reach, tag='l1b', inst_id=inst_id)
+  pysat.utils.io.inst_to_netcdf(reach, 'output_file.nc', epoch_name='Epoch')
+
+
+However, there are additional options when translating pysat metadata to SPDF
+preferred formats.  An example of this is
+
+::
+
+  # Use meta translation table to include SPDF preferred format.
+  # Note that multiple names are output for compliance with pysat.
+  # Using the most generalized form for labels for future compatibility.
+  meta_dict = {reach.meta.labels.min_val: ['VALIDMIN'],
+               reach.meta.labels.max_val: ['VALIDMAX'],
+               reach.meta.labels.units: ['UNITS'],
+               reach.meta.labels.name: ['CATDESC', 'LABLAXIS', 'FIELDNAM'],
+               reach.meta.labels.notes: ['VAR_NOTES'],
+               reach.meta.labels.fill_val: ['_FillValue'],
+               'Depend_0': ['DEPEND_0'],
+               'Format': ['FORMAT'],
+               'Monoton': ['MONOTON'],
+               'Var_Type': ['VAR_TYPE']}
+
+  pysat.utils.io.inst_to_netcdf(reach, 'output_file.nc', epoch_name='Epoch',
+                                meta_translation=meta_dict,
+                                export_pysat_info=False)
+
+
+In this case, note that the pysat 'name' label is output to three different
+metadata values required by the ITSP standards. Additionally, the
+``export_pysat_info`` option is set to false here. This drops several internal
+pysat metadata values before writing to file.
+
+Other best practices for archival include adding the operational software version
+to the metadata header before writing. The pysat version will be automatically
+written to the metadata.
+
+::
+
+  reach.meta.header.Software_version = ops_reach.__version__
+
+
+A full example script to generate output files can be found at
+https://github.com/jklenzing/ops_reach/blob/main/scripts/netcdf_gen.py

docs/examples.rst

@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ tools
 
 .. toctree::
    examples/ex_init.rst
+

docs/index.rst

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ CDAWeb interface.
    supported_constellations.rst
    examples.rst
    develop_guide.rst
+   archival.rst
    migration_guide.rst
    history.rst