# Introduction to CSDM format¶

The core scientific dataset (CSD) model is a light-weight, portable, versatile, and standalone data model capable of handling a variety of scientific datasets. The model only encapsulates data values and the minimum metadata to accurately represent a p-component dependent variable, $$(\mathbf{U}_0, ... \mathbf{U}_q, ... \mathbf{U}_{p-1})$$, discretely sampled at M unique points in a d-dimensional coordinate space, $$(\mathbf{X}_0, \mathbf{X}_1, ... \mathbf{X}_k, ... \mathbf{X}_{d-1})$$. The model is not intended to encapsulate any information on how the data might be acquired, processed, or visualized.

The data model is versatile in allowing many use cases for most spectroscopy, diffraction, and imaging techniques. As such the model supports multi-component datasets associated with continuous physical quantities that are discretely sampled in a multi-dimensional space associated with other carefully controlled quantities, for e.g., a mass as a function of temperature, a current as a function of voltage and time, a signal voltage as a function of magnetic field gradient strength, a color image with a red, green, and blue (RGB) light intensity components as a function of two independent spatial dimensions, or the six components of the symmetric second-rank diffusion tensor MRI as a function of three independent spatial dimensions. Additionally, the model supports multiple dependent variables sharing the same $$d$$-dimensional coordinate space. For example, a simultaneous measurement of current and voltage as a function of time, simultaneous acquisition of air temperature, pressure, wind velocity, and solar-flux as a function of Earth’s latitude and longitude coordinates. We refer to these dependent variables as correlated-datasets.

The CSD model is independent of the hardware, operating system, application software, programming language, and the object-oriented file-serialization format utilized in serializing the CSD model to the file. Out of numerous file serialization formats, XML, JSON, property list, we chose the data-exchange oriented JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) file-serialization format because it is human-readable and easily integrable with any number of programming languages and field related application-software.