Format

The preferred Format for data tables is TAB-delimited TEXT-files (UTF-8), or Excel files. The focus is on tabulated field observations, which are presented in a relational database (PostgreSQL).

Example: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.934148

Binary objects and documentations are stored in a tape archive. File formats should follow ISO standards or at least de facto standards. Online preview is available for raster graphics and videos (e.g. .tif, .png, .jpeg, .mp4).

Example: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.936185

Documentation

 * PDF/A (ISO19005) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/A
 * ODF (ISO26300) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
 * or just plain UTF-8 text - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
 * MS Office files - standard OOXML (ISO/IEC 29500:2008 since Office 2013 - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office, e.g. .xlsx for Excel files

Images

 * tiff
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_Image_File_Format
 * ISO12639:1998
 * jpeg
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jpeg
 * ISO10918-1:1994
 * png
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics
 * ISO/IEC 15948:2004

Video
see: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Video
 * MPG Container
 * MP3
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
 * ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004?
 * MPEG2 (for PAL)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_2
 * ISO/IEC 13818-11:2004
 * Software VLC media player


 * MP4 Container
 * AAC
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
 * ISO/IEC 13818-7:2006
 * MPEG-4 (for HDTV)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4
 * ISO/IEC 14496

Audio

 * MP3
 * WAVE (WAV)
 * description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
 * example

Seismic

 * segy

ADCP

 * proprietary binary ping-format, archived on hs, linked to metadescription in PANGAEA
 * ping: http://currents.soest.hawaii.edu/docs/doc/codas_doc/CODAS_pingdemo.html
 * final processed data in UTF-8, archived in data numeric of PANGAEA (file size 100-500 MB!)
 * Example

Large array-oriented, scientific data (no models!)

 * Network Common Data Form (NetCDF),
 * description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetCDF
 * Unidata/NSF http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/
 * example https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940846
 * viewer panoply http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/panoply/

Compression

 * zip is ISO-standard (tar and 7z are NOT standard)

Proprietary formats
Include a reference, preferably with a DOI, to open source software (e.g. at GitHub, pypi.org) that can be used to open such files.