Most all research aircraft provide a real-time feed of selected data to users on the aircraft. This typically consisted of 1 second data sent across RS-232. For decades each aircraft operator had its own list of parameters which were transmitted in real-time around the aircraft. Some aircraft used a fixed format all the time, others the format or list would change from campaign to campaign. Users (instrument PI's) would need to change their code when they moved the instrument from one platform to the next.
This is an attempt to come up with a standard list and format which all aircraft would [hopefully] provide. The list IS extendable!
What the Trivial Feed DOES NOT try to do is:
Musing
Further, it is desirable to find or define an XML schema to describe this packet and future data packets.
Here is an example of the above packet definition using Unidata's netCDF markup language (NcML):
As an example, here is an abbreviated NCAR-RAF netCDF header from MILAGRO as NcML: