Wiki
Definition
The smallest aggregation of data which is independently managed (i. e. described, inventoried, retrievable). Granules may be managed as logical granules and/or physical granules. See also frame and scene.
Granules are often referred to as inventory or file level metadata though granules can actually be pieces of files. Granules cannot exist without being associated with a collection. Granules may have a different metadata model than the parent collection in order to support values for additional attributes as needed for those granules.
Comments
Note that in these definitions of “collection” and “granule” that a collection is the minimum citable unit of data, akin to a journal article. This approach helps align data citation and publication with the much more mature practices surrounding journal article publication. In this alignment, granules can be thought of as the words in that article. This functional definition allows for flexibility as well; just as current science domains have their own standards for what qualifies as a minimally citable body of work that can go into a single journal article, different data domains across NOAA can do the same and determine what makes sense to go into one of their collections. If NOAA should ever reach a more detailed definition, adjustments can be made to align the collection metadata with that new definition.
Source
This term and functional definition emerged from an ESIP session on collections and granules in the mid-2010’s.; CEOS EO Data Stewardship Glossary
NESDIS Data Management Lexicon and Related Terms
Category