What is metadata?

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Hello and welcome to CoreFacts, where we're always short on time and big on science. I'm Dane Klima.

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Now back to CoreFacts. Today's question is about Metadata.

What is metadata?

Metadata consist of information that characterizes data. In essence, metadata answer who, what, when, where, why, and how about every facet of the data that are being documented. Metadata are used to provide documentation for data products.

For example, metadata would answer the following questions: What geographic area does the data set cover? Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period? Who produced the dataset? What were the objectives of the research that resulted in this data set?

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