Datagrams: Diagrammatic Metadata for Humans

Creation of metadata (data about data) takes many forms and has many standards, much of which are designed to provide information for computer algorithms to find, access, and distribute data rather than for how humans might ingest data information. The humans (engineers, technicians, operators, scientists, data managers) that are increasingly tasked with being the providers of standard scientific metadata by the data science community also have a critical need for a different kind of metadata: metadata that can be used in the field (often offline) that provide a detailed visual map of the pathway taken by the electronic signal from a measuring device to a finalized, quality controlled geophysical variable. Datagrams presented here have been developed to fill this requirement and are a user-friendly, information-rich, graphical format that outline, record, and detail the critical information and steps involved with origin, collection, dataflow, processing, and archiving of data. Datagrams are designed to provide critical information across engineering, maintenance, data processing, and scientific teams that might speak different languages but are all required to process and maintain the data or instrument. The essential components of datagrams developed for instruments operating at remote Arctic stations are described here, but of course the concept is applicable to any type of observing protocol in any location.