Understand sources, times and units

Start with provenance

Upperblue consolidates data from different datasets. Check which catalogue or institution supplies the result and carry the required attribution and terms into your presentation. The source overview helps you find context and onward references.

Distinguish the times

• Event or observation time tells you when the recorded event occurred.
• Submission, processing or response time means something else; a new API response does not guarantee a new measurement.
• Forecasts have run and valid times. Choose the time that answers your question rather than simply the newest timestamp.

Keep units and missingness visible

Use the units and definitions supplied by the endpoint. An empty collection, null and numeric zero are different results. Do not turn missing values into zero or assume review/quality status when it is unknown.

Keep scope explicit

In the earthquake example, source_system selects a catalogue. Two catalogues can describe the same event with different identities. A count of rows is therefore not automatically a count of unique physical events.

Next step

Bound your interval and pages, and use the API reference for exact response-field semantics.