FAAM Flight Data File Names

FAAM data file names follow the BADC File Name Convention with a number of additional specific constraints listed below.

The file name structure is as follows:

Field 1 _ Field 2 _ Field 3 _ Field 4 _ Field 5 [ _ Field 6 ] . extension
or, more precisely:

dataID_faam_YYYYMMDD[hh[mm[ss]]]_r#_fxxx[_extra].ext
where elements in square brackets are optional. Note that the file name is made of 5 mandatory and 1 optional fields separated by underscore signs, plus a file extension separated from the file name body by a dot. Letters appearing in the various fields must be lower case characters. The different fields represent the following variables, with the following syntax.

Field 1. dataID identifies the data stored in the file. It can be the name of an instrument, of a group of instruments, of the physical quantity measured by an instrument. This field has the value core for files containing processed data issued from the set of core instruments flown on a particular flight. In some instances, non-core data can also be merged into single files, in which case dataID will have a value referring to all merged non-core data. Note that the dataID parameter is called instrument in the BADC File Name Convention. Only values of dataID belonging to the BADC list of standard instrument names will be accepted by the file uploader. If you are a data provider and can't find an adequate value in the list, please contact the BADC.
Field 2. The second field (the platform name) must be faam for data collected aboard the FAAM aircraft.
Field 3. The third field is the date, in the format YYYYMMDD (Year YYYY, Month MM, Day DD). If needed, this can be completed by an indication of time, where any of the 2-digit numbers hh (hour), mm (minutes), ss (seconds) can be omitted provided that the next ones are also omitted.
Field 4. r# (lower case r followed by an integer greater than or equal to 0) is the data revision number. r0 stands for the initial version, r1 for the first revision, etc.
Field 5. fxxx is the flight number. It is made of a lower case letter followed by a 3-digit integer. For example, all FAAM flights from March to October 2004 are numbered b001 to b056.
Field 6. The extra field is optional and is provided to account for any useful piece of information not covered by the previous 5 fields. Raw data may be distinguished from processed data in this way, although the file name extension (see below) will usually provide a sufficient indication on whether the data is raw or processed. extra may include underscore signs (in other words, extra could be more than one subfield).
Extension. ext is an indication of the file format. A list of accepted file name extensions is provided. Please contact the BADC if the list must be updated to account for a new format (in particular, for raw data produced in an instrument-specific format).