Class SamplingCoverageMeasurement (a subclass of OM_DiscreteCoverageObservation) is intended for use where the observation is concerned with the evaluation of measurands that vary with respect to space and/or time - the result of this observation type shall refer to an entity of type CV_DiscreteCoverage (from ISO 19123).<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>ComplexSamplingMeasurement enforces the following additional constraints:<br /></p><p>- 'featureOfInterest' shall refer to an entity of type SF_SpatialSamplingFeature (from ISO 19156), or subclass thereof; and <br /></p><p>- 'procedure' shall refer to an entity of type Process (from WMO METCE), or subclass thereof<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A critical concern of meteorology is the understanding of the variation of physical phenomena with either space and/or time. This is exactly what the Coverage model is designed to convey. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Coverages are defined in 2 distinct categories: Discrete and Continuous. The main difference is that Continuous coverages provide an interpolation function to evaluate the phenomena at any point within the coverage domain, which Discrete coverages do not. A Discrete coverage is comprised of a number of domain elements (e.g. discrete locations where the phenomenon is sampled) and the associated range elements (e.g. the data). Where the phenomena are considered to be continuously varying within the Coverage domain, a user may apply their own interpolation algorithm as meets their specific requirement. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>When describing properties that vary in space and/or time, WMO METCE shall make exclusive use only of Discrete coverages.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The Class ‘SamplingCoverageMeasurement’ is based on the SamplingCoverageObservation which is defined in an informative annex of ISO 19156. However, the term ‘measurement’ is used in the name in an attempt to reduce confusion arising from the overloading of the term ‘observation’.<br /></p>