The ATC default output data files are evolving, they will contain a small metadata section before the columns description line.
This header is based on a WMO model, as it is distributed on The World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) . Each non data line will be prefixed with a pound key allowing an automatic parsing of the files. The number of the lines of the header is also provided for convenience.
The following excerpt from a data output file for carbon dioxyde at the OPE station gives an example of forthcoming files
# TITLE: CO2 - NRT Continuous air
# FILE NAME: OPE_2015-09-15T00:00:00_2015-09-15T23:59:59_10.0_187_C_hour.CO2
# DATA FORMAT: Version 1.0
# TOTAL LINES: 57
# HEADER LINES: 33
# PROJECT DATA VERSION: Undefined
# DATA VERSION: NRT
# STATION CODE: OPE
# STATION NAME: Observatoire pérenne de l'environnement
# STATION CATEGORY: Contributing
# OBSERVATION CATEGORY: Air sampling observation at a Stationary platform
# COUNTRY/TERRITORY: France
# CONTRIBUTOR: Andra - Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets
radioactifs
# LATITUDE: 48.5619 N
# LONGITUDE: 5.5036 E
# ALTITUDE: 390 m asl
# NUMBER OF SAMPLING HEIGHTS: 1
# SAMPLING HEIGHTS: 10 m asl
# CONTACT POINT:
marc.delmotte@lsce.ipsl.fr,olivier.laurent@lsce.ipsl.fr,michel.ramonet@lsce.ipsl.fr,sebastien.conil@andra.fr
# PARAMETER: CO2
# COVERING PERIOD: 2015-09-15T00:00 2015-09-15T23:59
# TIME INTERVAL: hourly
# MEASUREMENT UNIT: umol.mol-¹
# MEASUREMENT METHOD: Cavity RingDown Spectrometer (instrument Id 187)
# SAMPLING TYPE: continuous
# TIME ZONE: UTC +1
# MEASUREMENT SCALE: WMOX2007
# DATA POLICY: see the ICOS-Atmosphere interim data policy (https://icos-atc.lsce.ipsl.fr/doc_public)
# COMMENT:
# Times are UTC
# Time-averaged values are reported at the beginning of the averaging
interval.
#
#Site;Year;Month;Day;Hour;Minute;Second;DecimalDate;co2;Stdev;NB;Flag;InstId;SamplingHeight;QualityId;AutoDescriptiveFlag;ManualDescriptiveFlag
OPE;2015;09;15;00;00;00;2015.70410959;399.595;0.219;16;U;187;10;49323;F-1;
OPE;2015;09;15;01;00;00;2015.70422374;399.345;0.182;16;U;187;10;49323;F-1;