Time Class Requirements Class: Basic Types and Simple Components Packages Requirements Class
OGC 08-094r1 SWE Common Data Model
The “axisID” attribute inherited from the parent class does not need to be set since a time reference system always has a single dimension. However it can be set to ‘T’ for
consistency with spatial axes.
The “referenceTime” attribute is used to specify a different time origin than the one sometimes implied by the “referenceFrame”. This is used to express a time relative to an
arbitrary epoch i.e. different from the origin of a well known reference frame. The new time origin specified by “referenceTime” shall be expressed with respect to the reference
frame specified and is of type “DateTime”. This forces the definition of this origin as a calendar datetime combination.
Requirement
http:www.opengis.netspecSWE2.0requml-simple-componentstime-ref-time-valid
Req 28. The value of the “referenceTime” attribute shall be expressed with respect
to the system of reference indicated by the “referenceFrame” attribute.
Example
This class can be used to define a value expressed as a UNIX time i.e. number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT by:
- Specifying that the reference frame is the UTC reference system - Setting the reference time to January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.
- Setting the unit of measure to seconds
See definitions of some commonly accepted time standards at http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiTime_standard
or http:stjarnhimlen.secomptime.html
The optional “localFrame” attribute allows for the definition of a local temporal frame of reference through the value of the component i.e. we are specifying a time origin, as
opposed to the referenceFrame which specifies that the value of the component is in reference
to this frame.
Requirement
http:www.opengis.netspecSWE2.0requml-simple-componentstime-local-frame-valid
Req 29. The “localFrame” attribute of an instance of the “Time” class shall have a
different value than the “referenceFrame” attribute.
This feature allows chaining several relative time positions. This is similar to what is done with spatial position in a geopositioning algorithm and which is also supported by
this standard using the “Vector” class.
Example
In the case of a whiskbroom scanner instrument, the “sampling time” is often expressed relative to the “scan start time” which is itself given relative to the “mission start time”. It is important to properly identify the chain of time
reference systems at play so that the adequate process can compute the absolute time of every measurement made
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Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium
SWE Common Data Model OGC 08-094r1
Note that it is often not practical to record the absolute time of each single measurement when high sampling rates are used.
A model forecast may represent its result times relative to the “run time” of the model for efficient encoding. The values of the output will be in reference to this base epoch. In this example the “referenceFrame” attribute of the
model time is set to UTC and the “localFrame” set as “ModelTime”. The model result would then define its “referenceFrame” as “ModelTime”, allowing the time values to be encoded relative to the specified time origin.
The “uom” attribute is mandatory since time is a continuous property that shall always be expressed in a well defined scale. The only units allowed are obviously time units.
Similarly to the “Quantity” class, the “constraint” attribute allows further restricting the range of possible time values by using the “AllowedTimes” class defined in clause 7.2.19.
The “value” attribute or the corresponding value in out-of-band data is of type “TimePosition” see clause 7.2.1 and must match the constraint.