Terms of Service

1. Agreement to These Terms

These Terms of Service ("these Terms") govern your access to and use of NetCDF Studio ("the Platform", "we", or "us"), a scientific data processing application that converts IMDAA (Indian Monsoon Data Assimilation and Analysis) reanalysis archives and Google Earth Engine (GEE) geospatial datasets into structured, research-ready CSV datasets.

By creating an account, checking the agreement checkbox during sign-up, or otherwise using the Platform, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms together with our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

If you are using the Platform on behalf of an institution or research group, you confirm that you have the authority to bind that organisation to these Terms.

2. Eligibility and Accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old, or have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement in your jurisdiction.
• You must provide accurate, complete, and current account information (name, email, and contact details) and keep it up to date.
• You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your authentication credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.
• One account per person. Sharing, transferring, or selling account access is not permitted, because quotas and processing allowances are granted per account.
• We may suspend or terminate an account that we believe has violated these Terms or has been compromised.

3. Memberships, Quotas, and Payment

3.1 Plan Tiers

The Platform offers membership tiers (for example Free Tier, Pro Membership, Max Membership, and Enterprise Membership). Each tier provides a defined server-storage quota, maximum upload size, concurrent processing-thread allowance, and set of available data sources. The exact figures for each tier are published on the Platform's pricing section and inside the Dashboard, and may change as tiers evolve.

3.2 Free Tier

The Free Tier is provided at no cost. It carries a smaller storage quota, a single processing thread, and access to uploaded archives only (remote data sources such as ERA5, CMIP6, AWS Open Data, and ESGF are not included). The Free Tier may be limited or withdrawn at our discretion for accounts that are inactive or that abuse the service.

3.3 Paid Memberships and Billing

• Paid memberships are billed monthly in Indian Rupees (₹) at the rate published for your selected tier, unless you have a separate written agreement with us for custom Enterprise terms.
• Memberships renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless cancelled before the renewal date. You can manage or cancel your membership from the Dashboard.
• Unless required by law, membership fees are non-refundable once a billing period has started. If we terminate your account for a breach of these Terms, no refund is owed.
• If a payment fails, we may pause processing and storage features until the outstanding amount is settled.
• Membership quotas are personal to your account. Rolling unused storage or unused compute from one period into another is not guaranteed.

3.4 What Your Membership Does Not Cover

Your membership covers the server-side computation we perform on your behalf: CPU time, memory, worker processes, and storage consumed when processing data you upload or fetch through an integrated third-party source. It does not cover charges levied by those third parties — for example Google Earth Engine compute costs or Copernicus ADS/CDS API usage — which are billed to your own account with that provider under their separate terms.

4. Acceptable Use and Prohibited Conduct

You agree that you will not, and will not permit anyone else to:

• Use the Platform to process unlawful, infringing, defamatory, or harmful content, or content you do not have the right to process.
• Upload or process material that contains malware, or attempt to introduce code that compromises the Platform's infrastructure or other users' data.
• Attempt to bypass storage quotas, upload limits, rate limits, authentication, or any other technical restriction.
• Probe, scan, or test the Platform for vulnerabilities without our prior written authorisation.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source of the Platform's correction engines or processing pipeline, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits it.
• Resell, sublicense, or offer the Platform's compute or storage to third parties as a hosted service.
• Use the Platform for any purpose that violates applicable Indian or international law, including export-control and data-protection regulations.

We may investigate suspected violations and take action — including quota reduction, suspension, or permanent termination — without notice where we consider it necessary to protect the Platform or other users.

5. Your Data and Licensing

5.1 You Retain Ownership of Your Research Data

You retain all rights, title, and interest in the archives you upload and the CSV datasets the Platform generates from them. We claim no ownership of your research data. Processing your data does not transfer any intellectual-property rights in it to us.

5.2 Third-Party Source Data

Where the Platform fetches data from Google Earth Engine, Copernicus CDS/ADS, AWS Open Data, or the ESGF federation on your behalf, that source data is governed by the licensor's own terms — for example Google Earth Engine terms and Copernicus licence conditions. You are responsible for complying with those licences and for any attribution they require in your published work. We make no claim over, and give no warranty on, third-party source data.

5.3 Our Limited Licence to Operate

You grant us the limited, non-exclusive right to store, read, and process your uploaded and generated data solely as needed to provide the service — including running correction modules, producing output files, retaining job records, and operating remote compute nodes enrolled by administrators for the duration of a job. This licence ends when your data is deleted from the Platform.

5.4 Platform Content

The Platform's name, branding, documentation, correction-module designs, and source code remain our property. The correction engines are provided for your use as part of the service and are not licensed for redistribution.

6. Processing, Corrections, and Scientific Accuracy

• The Platform applies scientific correction modules (for example Temperature, Radiation, and Vapor Pressure corrections) and unit conversions to your data. These are tools to support your research, not peer-reviewed scientific results.
• You are solely responsible for validating outputs — checking units, coordinate alignment, variable selection, and any correction assumptions — before relying on them in published work.
• Processing results may be affected by the quality, resolution, and structure of your input archives. Outputs are produced on a best-effort basis.
• Jobs that fail due to malformed or unsupported inputs are not eligible for refunds or quota credits.
• We may add, change, or deprecate correction modules and supported input formats as the Platform evolves; where a change would break existing workflows we will aim to document it in advance.

7. Storage, Retention, and Deletion

• Uploaded archives and generated CSV files are stored within your account's isolated workspace and count against your tier's storage quota.
• You can delete individual files or purge your workspace from the Dashboard and Settings at any time. Deletions are irreversible once confirmed.
• We may delete data from accounts that are inactive for an extended period, after reasonable notice attempts to the account's registered email.
• In the default self-hosted deployment using local storage, data lives on the host's filesystem; it is the operator's responsibility to configure durable storage volumes. We are not liable for data loss caused by an operator's deployment configuration.

8. Uptime, Support, and No Warranty

• The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or secure operation, and we do not commit to any specific availability level under these Terms.
• We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Platform, or any part of it, with or without notice. Where a change materially affects a paid membership, we will use reasonable efforts to notify you in advance.
• Scheduled maintenance, security incidents, and force-majeure events may cause downtime and are not grounds for compensation beyond what we choose to offer in good faith.
• Support is provided on a reasonable-effort basis; response times are not guaranteed under these Terms except where a separate Enterprise agreement states them.

9. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, neither NetCDF Studio nor its operator shall be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, research results, revenue, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of (or inability to use) the Platform — whether based on contract, tort, or any other legal theory.

Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms shall not exceed the amount you paid us for the membership in the three (3) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

10. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Platform, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party rights or applicable law.

11. Termination

• You may stop using the Platform and cancel your membership at any time from the Dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; your data remains available to you until then.
• We may terminate or suspend access immediately, without notice, if we believe you have breached these Terms, misused the service, or exposed the Platform or another user to harm.
• On termination, we may delete your stored data after a reasonable grace period. Download anything you need to keep before cancelling.
• Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination — including licensing disclaimers, liability limits, and indemnity — remain in effect.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. The "Last Updated" date above reflects the most recent revision. For material changes that affect existing members, we will notify you by email or an in-Platform notice before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you disagree with a material change, your remedy is to cancel your membership before it renews.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in India. We will always attempt to resolve disputes in good faith before formal proceedings.

14. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at: