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Pedantic point about "Bounding Box" #85

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PeterParslow opened this issue Dec 7, 2022 · 2 comments
Open

Pedantic point about "Bounding Box" #85

PeterParslow opened this issue Dec 7, 2022 · 2 comments
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Elements Issue that primarily affects the GEMINI elements

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@PeterParslow
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GEMINI Guidance states "The bounding box is implicitly in WGS84."

This is not strictly true (or else I am misunderstanding "implicitly"!): the bounding box element in ISO 19115 does not mention any coordinate reference system. The INSPIRE Metadata technical guidance adds a requirement, TG Requirement C.19: metadata/2.0/req/common/bounding-box including

"The bounding coordinate values for west and east bound longitudes and south and north bound latitudes shall be given in decimal degree values using WGS 84 Coordinate Reference System,"

So perhaps it is true that GEMINI Bounding Boxes are implicitly in WGS84 because they "must" satisfy the INSPIRE TG, but it may be better to say something like "Following the lead of the INSPIRE technical guidance, use WGS84 to estimate the bounding box." (or "calculate", "define",...)

@PeterParslow PeterParslow added the Elements Issue that primarily affects the GEMINI elements label Dec 7, 2022
@nmtoken
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nmtoken commented Dec 7, 2022

On a related pedantic note, I think RL would say that the CRS referred to is WGS 84 not WGS84

I'm not sure though if specifying east, west, north. south extents in the below form, would implicitly mean that WGS 84 CRS is being referenced, because WGS 84 CRS specifies an axis order (latitude, longitude) and the below format has no such ordering

<gmd:geographicElement>
   <gmd:EX_GeographicBoundingBox>
      <gmd:westBoundLongitude>
         <gco:Decimal>-180.0000</gco:Decimal>
      </gmd:westBoundLongitude>
      <gmd:eastBoundLongitude>
         <gco:Decimal>180.0000</gco:Decimal>
      </gmd:eastBoundLongitude>
      <gmd:southBoundLatitude>
         <gco:Decimal>-90.0000</gco:Decimal>
      </gmd:southBoundLatitude>
      <gmd:northBoundLatitude>
         <gco:Decimal>90.0000</gco:Decimal>
      </gmd:northBoundLatitude>
   </gmd:EX_GeographicBoundingBox>
</gmd:geographicElement>

Possibly the World Geodetic System 1984 ensemble datum is implied

@PeterParslow
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The laugh is for me missing the space!

I like the explicit encoding that avoids / sidesteps any question of "coordinate order" depending on the exact "flavour" of WGS 84 that you use.

The ISO 19115 expert here at TC/211 said that the absence of a CRS (at the ISO level) is a strong reason not to provide any of the bounding coordinates to more than a couple of decimal places.

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