Removing Sentinel-5p *.cdl from product download [2024-10-17] on CREODIAS

Following the consolidated user feedback as well as to streamline the delivery of Sentinel-5P data within CREODIAS, please be informed that the delivery package (.zip) for Sentinel-5p products downloaded via the CREODIAS will be changed, starting from 19 November 2024. The *.cdl file that is currently within the Sentinel-5p download .zip products is planned to be permanently removed for the entire Sentinel-5p archive.

Currently, the product download service provides concatenated *.zip files. Once the change is implemented, the product download service will provide S-5p products directly in the native format (*.nc). This will start with the fresh products and will gradually apply to downloads for the entire S-5p repository as the *.cdl is gradually removed.

Removing *.cdl will start on 19 November 2024 and will last for several weeks. As a part of this activity, all traces and checksums that are published via the catalogue and in the traceability service, will be recalculated.

The rationale for this change is that the *.cdl content is redundant to internal metadata of the NetCDF file and therefore unnecessary. If needed, this file can be re-produced with the ncdump tool which is part of NetCDF package (https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/). The command to extract NetCDF header into .cdl file is:

ncdump –h filename.nc > filename.cdl

Providing direct access to the data through the http download will facilitate online processing e.g. via STAC interfaces.