Augment cdms2.createAxis to accept "missing" argument

[durack1]

I've been generating a new singleton axis for use in CMOR (rewriting the default table entry of 2):

{'table_entry': 'height2m',
 'units': 'm',
 'coord_vals': cdm.createAxis([10.],id='height')},

When CMOR writes this singleton axis I get the following output:

...
huss:history = "2018-02-01T20:08:35Z altered by CMOR: Treated scalar dimension: \'height\'. 2018-02-01T20:08:35
Z altered by CMOR: replaced missing value flag (-9.99e+33) with standard missing value (1e+20)." ;
...

It'd be great if cdms2.createAxis could also take the missing= keyword arg, so that this comment and CMOR change could be suppressed. So what I am thinking is:

'coord_vals': cdm.createAxis([10.],id='height',missing=1.e20)},

And the current experience:

In [55]: a = cdm.createAxis([10.],id='height')

In [56]: b = cdm.createAxis([10.],id='height',missing=1.e20)
Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-56-cc3e960cd1ed>", line 1, in <module>
    b = cdm.createAxis([10.],id='height',missing=1.e20)

TypeError: createAxis() got an unexpected keyword argument 'missing'

[dnadeau4]

Is this CF compliant?

[durack1]

@dnadeau4 what do you mean?

[dnadeau4]

This is not allowed.
http://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-1.6/build/cf-conventions.html#idp5553648

_FillValue | A value used to represent missing or undefined data.  Not allowed for coordinate data except in the case of auxiliary coordinate varibles in discrete sampling geometries.

[dnadeau4]

Why do you want to create an axis with missing_value? It does not make sense
[10, 20, -, 30, 40] What would the depth be for values between 20 an 30 meters in the data array.

[durack1]

@dnadeau4 my question may be erroneous, it's likely the array (not the axes) change caused altered by CMOR: replaced missing value flag (-9.99e+33) with standard missing value (1e+20) - is that consistent with your understanding? If yes, then I have to change the missing value of the array I am passing to CMOR (and not the axes)

[dnadeau4]

You are right, it is not the axes.
When you call "create_variable" in cmor, you have to pass missing_value=-9.99e+33. https://cmor.llnl.gov/mydoc_cmor3_api/#cmor_variable

[durack1]

@dnadeau4 weird, I did have cmor.variable(outputVarName,d.units,axisIds,missing_value=d.missing) in the call, but the missing value must be wrongly labelled and consequently causing the error..

I'll close this, as it's a non-issue