/*
* Copyright 1998-2014 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
*
* Portions of this software were developed by the Unidata Program at the
* University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
*
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* any fee or cost, to use, copy, modify, alter, enhance and distribute
* this software, and any derivative works thereof, and its supporting
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*
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*/
package ucar.nc2.ft;
import ucar.ma2.StructureData;
import ucar.unidata.geoloc.LatLonPoint;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Date;
/**
* A set of observations along the vertical (z) axis.
* A profile has a nominal lat/lon and time.
* Actual time may be constant, or vary with z.
* The z coordinates are monotonic, and may be increasing or decreasing.
*
* @author caron
* @since Feb 8, 2008
*/
public interface ProfileFeature extends PointFeatureCollection {
/**
* Nominal location of this profile
* @return the nominal location of this profile
*/
public LatLonPoint getLatLon();
/**
* Nominal time of the profile
* @return the nominal time of this profile
*/
public Date getTime();
/**
* The number of points along the z axis. May not be known until after iterating through the collection.
* @return number of points along the z axis, or -1 if not known.
*/
public int size();
/**
* The actual data of just this feature.
* @return the actual data of this feature.
* @throws java.io.IOException on i/o error
*/
public StructureData getFeatureData() throws IOException;
}