# Cable metadata

**Cable Metadata**

* The Cable metadata is designed to allow investigators to describe the cable used in their experiment, which could be one continuous long cable, or cables with multiple connectors or across several installation environments. There are also parameters relating to the general geographical location of the cable to facilitate searchability in future databases. The Cable metadata should include available information on the cable and its installation as this knowledge may help in developing a system-level description of the exact cable response.
* Required fields *(mark with an asterisk, and indicated in the tables below)*\
  [cable\_id\*](#cable_id) | [cable\_bounding\_box\*](#cable_bounding_box)
* Optional fields\
  [cable\_owner](#cable_owner) | [cable\_installation\_date](#cable_installation_date) | [cable\_removal\_date](#cable_removal_date) | [cable\_characteristics](#cable_characteristics) | [cable\_environment](#cable_environment) | [cable\_installation\_environment](#cable_installation_environment) | [cable\_model](#cable_model) | [cable\_outside\_diameter](#cable_outside_diameter) | [cable\_outside\_diameter\_unit](#cable_outside_diameter_unit) | [comment](#comment)

***

#### cable\_id

| attributeID          | cable\_id  `Required`                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Unique identifier for the specific physical cable used in the data acquisition. Identifier should have a maximum of 8 alphanumeric characters with no special characters (e.g., underscores, period, dash). |
| **Required**         | True                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| **Type**             | String                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| **Style**            | Alphanumeric                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| **Units or options** | --                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| **Example**          | CA001                                                                                                                                                                                                       |

#### cable\_bounding\_box

| attributeID          | cable\_bounding\_box  `Required`                                                                                                                      |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | List of approximate coordinates of the bounding box containing the array \[minimum latitude, maximum latitude, minimum longitude, maximum longitude]. |
| **Required**         | True                                                                                                                                                  |
| **Type**             | List                                                                                                                                                  |
| **Style**            | float pairs                                                                                                                                           |
| **Units or options** | decimal degree                                                                                                                                        |
| **Example**          | \[39.797, 39.813, -119.013, -118.995]                                                                                                                 |

#### cable\_owner

| attributeID          | cable\_owner  `Optional`        |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Proprietary owner of the cable. |
| **Required**         | True                            |
| **Type**             | String                          |
| **Style**            | Alphanumeric                    |
| **Units or options** | --                              |
| **Example**          | CA001                           |

#### cable\_installation\_date

| attributeID          | cable\_installation\_date  `Optional`                                     |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Cable installation date in UTC. This may not be known, an optional field. |
| **Required**         | True                                                                      |
| **Type**             | String                                                                    |
| **Style**            | ISO formatted date                                                        |
| **Units or options** | na                                                                        |
| **Example**          | -                                                                         |

#### cable\_removal\_date

| attributeID          | cable\_removal\_date  `Optional`                                     |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Cable removal date in UTC. This may not be known, an optional field. |
| **Required**         | True                                                                 |
| **Type**             | String                                                               |
| **Style**            | ISO formatted date                                                   |
| **Units or options** | na                                                                   |
| **Example**          | -                                                                    |

#### cable\_characteristics

| attributeID          | cable\_characteristics  `Optional`               |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **Description**      | Describes how the fiber is encased in the cable. |
| **Required**         | False                                            |
| **Type**             | String                                           |
| **Style**            | Controlled vocabulary                            |
| **Units or options** | \[buffered                                       |
| **Example**          | buffered                                         |

#### cable\_environment

| attributeID          | cable\_environment  `Optional`                   |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **Description**      | Describes the installation environment of cable. |
| **Required**         | False                                            |
| **Type**             | String                                           |
| **Style**            | Controlled vocabulary                            |
| **Units or options** | \[conduit                                        |
| **Example**          | trench                                           |

#### cable\_installation\_environment

| attributeID          | cable\_installation\_environment  `Optional`               |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Plain language description of how the cable was installed. |
| **Required**         | False                                                      |
| **Type**             | String                                                     |
| **Style**            | Free form text                                             |
| **Units or options** | --                                                         |
| **Example**          | na                                                         |

#### cable\_model

| attributeID          | cable\_model  `Optional`  |
| -------------------- | ------------------------- |
| **Description**      | Cable manufacturer model. |
| **Required**         | False                     |
| **Type**             | String                    |
| **Style**            | Free form text            |
| **Units or options** | --                        |
| **Example**          | na                        |

#### cable\_outside\_diameter

| attributeID          | cable\_outside\_diameter  `Optional` |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| **Description**      | Cable outside diameter.              |
| **Required**         | False                                |
| **Type**             | Float                                |
| **Style**            | na                                   |
| **Units or options** | --                                   |
| **Example**          | --                                   |

#### cable\_outside\_diameter\_unit

| attributeID          | cable\_outside\_diameter\_unit  `Optional` |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| **Description**      | Unit of outside diameter of cable.         |
| **Required**         | False                                      |
| **Type**             | String                                     |
| **Style**            | Controlled vocabulary                      |
| **Units or options** | millimeter                                 |
| **Example**          | trench                                     |

#### comment

| attributeID          | comment  `Optional`  |
| -------------------- | -------------------- |
| **Description**      | Additional comments. |
| **Required**         | False                |
| **Type**             | String               |
| **Style**            | Free form text       |
| **Units or options** | --                   |
| **Example**          | na                   |


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