What's in a name?
File Naming
The file naming convention is as follows: ssssdddh.zip. Where “ssss” is used to identify the site name, “ddd” is the day of the year, “h” is the hour identifier (UT), and .zip is the type of compression used. The files are organized in directories according to the year, day of year, site and UT hour of day.
Do not be confused by the times listed on the left of the Rinex data page. They are the times the files were posted from the sites. The 8th character in the file name indicates the data range: "a" 0:00 UT - 0:59 UT , "b" 1:00 UT - 1:59 UT, ..., "x" 23:00 UT - 23:59 UT.
Let's look at what the RINEX filename mcso156a.zip is telling us
Note
During Pacific Standard Time there is an -8hr difference between UT (Universal Time) and Local.
During Pacific Daylight Savings Time there is a
-7 hr difference between UT and Local.
In this table, each RINEX file is listed at the hour they will be downloaded from the sensor to the server. The data in each file includes the observation data for the hour completed at that time. For example, the ' a' file would include data from 4pm-5pm PST.
| 1 AM | 6 PM | 5 PM | a |
| 2 AM | 7 PM | 6 PM | b |
| 3 AM | 8 PM | 7 PM | c |
| 4 AM | 9 PM | 8 PM | d |
| 5 AM | 10 PM | 9 PM | e |
| 6 AM | 11 PM | 10 PM | f |
| 7 AM | 12 AM | 11 PM | g |
| 8 AM | 1 AM | 12 AM | h |
| 9 AM | 2 AM | 1 AM | i |
| 10 AM | 3 AM | 2 AM | g |
| 11 AM | 4 AM | 3 AM | k |
| 12 PM (noon) | 5 AM | 4 AM | l |
| 1 PM | 6 AM | 5 AM | m |
| 2 PM | 7 AM | 6 AM | n |
| 3 PM | 8 AM | 7 AM | o |
| 4 PM | 9 AM | 8 AM | p |
| 5 PM | 10 AM | 9 AM | q |
| 6 PM | 11 AM | 10 AM | r |
| 7 PM | 12 PM (noon) | 11 AM | s |
| 8 PM | 1 PM | 12 PM (noon) | t |
| 9 PM | 2 PM | 1 PM | u |
| 10 PM | 3 PM | 2 PM | v |
| 11 PM | 4 PM | 3 PM | w |
| 12 PM | 5 PM | 4 PM | x |
