EBAS Data Submission Tool

Troubleshooting file submission errors

This page contains a list of common errors/warnings and possible solutions. In addition you could checkout our issue tracker for browsing and/or posting issues related to file errors/warnings, or browse errors that other users have experienced in the past in order to see if they could be of any help.

We hope to share common errors and possible solutions related to syntactical people experience when submitting data to EBAS. The issue tracker on Github should only be used to troubleshoot file submission errors or application specific errors for the ebas-submit-tool. For other issues or inquiries, please contact ebas@nilu.no.

General list of common errors and possible solutions

Note that this is only meant as a simple reference to common errors and proposed solutions. Please browse through the error messages (do a simple Ctrl + f) and search parts of your error message, to see if any of them matches yours, if they are similar you could try the proposed solution. If you have any fixes you would like to submit, you could fork the github repository https://github.com/ebas-submission-tool/troubleshooting/issues or send an e-mail to ebas@nilu.no.

Error messages


The uploaded file had no header or the header is invalid.

Possible solution: First make sure that the metadata header is included in the file. If you have included the metadata header but you are still getting this error, make sure your file has the correct encoding. It is likely that the file contains some invalid characters. You can check the character encoding using firefox. Open firefox. Go to File-> Open File and then select your nasa-ames file. Then go to View -> Text Encoding and see what type of encoding you file is using. If you e.g. see that you are using "Western" encoding, switch to Unicode. If you have invalid charachters these will likely look something like this, e.g. -40�C instead of -40°C or H�rger instead of Hörger. The character encoding should be set to Unicode or UTF-8.


Organization code syntax error, should be XX99Y

Possible solution: Make sure you have the correct number of charachters, e.g. NO01L


Revision date (xxxxxxxxxx), must be the same day as RDATE specified in line 7

Possible solution: Make sure revision date on this line matches the revision date on line 7


Note: This is an example of an error were one of the flag columns is wrong. A VMISS error could be for any other of the flag columns aswell

VMISS[11]: illegal missing value for flag column: '0.999'. Should be 9.[999]... (groups of 3 digiits). Flag skipped

Possible solution: Flag column number 12 is incorrect, flag column is set to 0.999 but should be 9.999


illegal metadata element X for instrument Y and component Z

Possible solution: Check that the instrument type is correct. The instrument type is case sensitive, and a common error is using capital letters for the instrument type


    Method ref: syntax error: 'FI0050L_neph_control_lev2_0_0_3'. Should be NN12T_AZaz09+.' (NN12T: Organization code (NN: nation code, 12: 2 digit organization number, T: organization type character), AZaz09+.: free text as method description (legal characters are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, -, _, +, .))

Possible solution: Make sure that the Method reference contains the lab code, see line 3 and unique reference to lab internal SOP.


    data line does not contain x values
value does not match missing value definition

Possible solution: Make sure that the missing value tags defined in your file contains the same number of elements as your actual data.


    NLHEAD and NNCOM are inconsisten 

Possible solution: NLHEAD is total number of lines in the header, see line 1 in your file. NNCOM is the number of normal comment lines (this line is found after the "Number of special comment lines", which usually is 0). This is all the following header lines contain information for classifying the dataset in the database. Most likely you are getting this error because the number of header lines defined in your nasa-ames file does not add up. You should check that there is not any inconsistencies


Note The line you will be getting this error on may vary, due to the dynamic nature of the metadata fields.

Originator: <surname>, <firstname> not found in ONAME (line 2)        

Possible solution: Make sure the data originator is the same in this line as in line 2.


    Organization syntax error, should be: code, name, acronym, unit, addr1, addr2, zip, city, country

Possible solution: Check that the number of commas and order of input fields as as in the string above. Leave empty fields blank, but remember, you still need to provide the correct number of commas as in the string above.


Station other IDs: syntax error. Should be like 'Station-ID (Framework or project)[, ...]'

Possible solution: If this field is blank, you can leave this line all together. If you do so, make sure you adjust the the total number of headerlines in line 1 and number of normal comment lines.


Originator: syntax error: '<your input is listed here>'. 11 elements needed, should be 'Last name, First name, Email, Organization name, Organization acronym, Organization unit, Address line 1, Address line 2, ZIP code, City, Country'.

Possible solution: Often a comma is left out. Make sure that the number of elements are 11. If there are data fields left out, you still it blank between the commas.


Regime/Matrix/Component combination 'IMG'/'PM10'/'particle_number_size_distribution' is not defined

Possible solution: The matrix identifier is case sensitive. Therefore make sure that you use exactly the same syntax as in the documentation. Avoid e.g. PM10 with capital letters, instead use pm10. For correct syntax, see the following link http://www.gaw-wdca.org/SubmitData/RegularAnnualDataReporting/regularformatcommentsauxheaderline12.aspx


illegal metadata element x for instrument SMPS and component x

Possible solution: In this case the submitter has been using "Instrument type: SMPS", since the nas-ames parser is case sensitive uppercase letter will cause the parser to not recognize the instrument type, and therefore return the illegal metadata element error. To solve this use lower case letter for the instrument type. "Instrument type: smps"


start time of first sample (<4 digit year>-<2 digit month>-<2 digit day>T<2 digit hour>:<2 digit minute>:<2 digit second>) is not equal to 'Startdate' specified in metadata (<4 digit year>-<2 digit month>-<2 digit day>T<2 digit hour>:<2 digit minute>:<2 digit second>)

Possible solution:

This error will occur if the specified "Startdate" does not match the startdate of the first sample in your dataset. E.g. if start time of first sample is (2015-03-11T12:00:00) and the 'Startdate' specified in metadata is equal to (2015-03-11T00:00:00), then this inconsistency will give you an error. Therfore make sure that the "Startdate" specified is equal to the first sample value in your dataset.

Organization syntax error, should be: code, name, acronym, unit, addr1, addr2, zip, city, country

Possible solution: When filling in details of the sponsoring organisation you must make sure that all fields are included, and that you have the right amount of commas. If there is an empty value, leave it blank between the commas, seperating the fields, in the right order.


Variable 143: value/flag inconsistent: value=9.99, flags=[999]; valid value and missing flag
Variable 142: value/flag inconsistent: value=17.2, flags=[999]; valid value and missing flag
Variable 138: value/flag inconsistent: value=89.8, flags=[999]; valid value and missing flag

ERROR   : line 11: number of VSCAL elements (146) does not match NV (145)
ERROR   : line 12: number of VMISS elements (146) does not match NV (145)
ERROR   : line 158: NSCOML: syntax error
ERROR   : line 2764: DATA[146]: value > VMISS is not allowed
ERROR   : line 158: Last variabe must have a flag


Also:ERROR: line 8852: DATA[11]: value does not match missing value definition (VMISS)

Possible solution:


number of VMISS elements (18) does not match NV (17)

Possible solution: Number of missing value elements must match the number of dependent data columns.


unknown metadata element 'Zero/negative values'

Possible solution: This error message was given because there was a blank space between the metadata element definition and colon. E.g. "Zero/negative values :", instead it should be "Zero/negative values:". Therefore make sure that you follow the exact same syntax as in the documentation.


    number of VMISS elements (16) does not match NV (17)

Possible solution: Maybe it is like, number of missing values are 16, and this does not match the number of variables, which are 17


    illegal metadata element Location for instrument chemiluminescence and component ozone

Possible solution:


Check data sanity

Possible solution:


illegal metadata element x for instrument TDMPS and component x

Possible solution: In this case the submitter has been using "Instrument type: TDMPS", since the nas-ames parser is case sensitive uppercase letter will cause the parser to not recognize the instrument type, and therefore return the illegal metadata element error. To solve this use lower case letter for the instrument type. "Instrument type: tdmps"


NCOM[56]: syntax error (not "Tag: value") 

Possible solution: In this case the nasa-ames parser does not recognize the tag and value of the metdata. Very often this is the case when the total number of header lines defined in Line 1 does not match the number of actual headerlines in the metadata. To solve this count the number of lines in you metadata header (e.g. using your text-editor) all the way down including the "Column short headers" (last line before the actual data itself). Then make sure that this matches what you have defined as the total number of headerlines in line 1.


ERROR   : line 160: NLHEAD and NNCOM are inconsistent

Possible solution:


ERROR   : Instrument type / Manufacturer / Model 'tdmps' / 'TROPOS' / 'TROPOS_TDMPS' is not allowed

Possible solution: The reason you are getting this error is most likely due to the combination Instrument type / Manufacturer / Model is invalid. In the case above the allowed syntax for instrument model is "TROPOS-TDMPS" instead of "TROPOS_TDMPS". If you are getting a similar error, check the documentation ebas-submit.nilu.no for more information.


start time of first sample (<4 digit year>-<2 digit month>-<2 digit day>T<2 digit hour>:<2 digit minute>:<2 digit second>) is not equal to 'Startdate' specified in metadata (<4 digit year>-<2 digit month>-<2 digit day>T<2 digit hour>:<2 digit minute>:<2 digit second>)

Possible solution:

This error will occur if the specified "Startdate" does not match the startdate of the first sample in your dataset. E.g. if start time of first sample is (2015-03-11T12:00:00) and the 'Startdate' specified in metadata is equal to (2015-03-11T00:00:00), then this inconsistency will give you an error. Therfore make sure that the "Startdate" specified is equal to the first sample value in your dataset.


ERROR   : line x: Variable x: Regime/Matrix/Component combination 'IMG'/'PM10_non_volatile'/'particle_number_size_distribution' is not defined

Possible solution: You are getting this error because of an syntax issue, matrix "PM10nonvolatile" should be written with only lowercase letters. Therefore matrix should be "pm10nonvolatile" instead.


ERROR: Statistics: illegal value percentile

Possible solution:


ERROR: line x DATA[x]: value > VMISS is not allowed

Possible solution:


Other application specific errors

Internal Server Error (500).

You might be getting this error because you are using invalid characters. You can troubleshoot this by checking the charachter encoding. You can check the character encoding using firefox. Open firefox. Go to File-> Open File and then select your NASA-ames file. Then go to View -> Text Encoding and see what type of encoding you file is using. If you e.g. see that you are using "Western" encoding, switch to Unicode/UTF-8. If you have invalid charachters these will likely look something like this, e.g. -40�C instead of -40°C or H�rger instead of Hörger. The character encoding should be set to Unicode or UTF-8. 

Requested JSON parse failed

Please check the encoding of your file. You are most likely getting this error due to encoding issues. Make sure that your file is encoded using UTF-8.