Metadata

The class diagram of temporal data and geospatial extent classes:

📅 Temporal data

Temporal data can be represented as instants (a time stamp) and intervals (an open or a closed interval between time stamps).

  // Instants can be created from `DateTime` or parsed from text.
  Instant(DateTime.utc(2020, 10, 31, 09, 30));
  Instant.parse('2020-10-31 09:30Z');

  // Intervals (open-started, open-ended, closed).
  Interval.openStart(DateTime.utc(2020, 10, 31));
  Interval.openEnd(DateTime.utc(2020, 10, 01));
  Interval.closed(DateTime.utc(2020, 10, 01), DateTime.utc(2020, 10, 31));

  // Same intervals parsed (by the "start/end" format, ".." for open limits).
  Interval.parse('../2020-10-31');
  Interval.parse('2020-10-01/..');
  Interval.parse('2020-10-01/2020-10-31');

🌐 Geospatial extents

Extent objects have both spatial bounds and temporal interval, and they are useful in metadata structures for geospatial data sources.

  // An extent with spatial (WGS 84 longitude-latitude) and temporal parts.
  GeoExtent.single(
    crs: CoordRefSys.CRS84,
    bbox: GeoBox(west: -20.0, south: 50.0, east: 20.0, north: 60.0),
    interval: Interval.parse('../2020-10-31'),
  );

  // An extent with multiple spatial bounds and temporal interval segments.
  GeoExtent.multi(
    crs: CoordRefSys.CRS84,
    boxes: [
      GeoBox(west: -20.0, south: 50.0, east: 20.0, north: 60.0),
      GeoBox(west: 40.0, south: 50.0, east: 60.0, north: 60.0),
    ],
    intervals: [
      Interval.parse('2020-10-01/2020-10-05'),
      Interval.parse('2020-10-27/2020-10-31'),
    ],
  );

See the section about coordinate reference systems for the description of CoordRefSys.