NetCDF time coordinate

Introduction

Date, time and calendar plus (optional) use of time intervals.

Time information in a netCDF file

Dimensions

dimensions:

time = number of time steps or UNLIMITED;

bnd = 2 ;

Comment: In case the number of time steps is known before-hand, Bert Jagers (Deltares) recommends to use a fixed length instead of an UNLIMITED dimension due to performace reasons. But this only works for variables not exceeding 4 GiB.

Variables

Coordinate time

double time(time) ;

time:standard_name = "time" ;

time:long_name = "time" ;

time:units = "time units since YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss zone" ;

time:axis = "T"

time:calendar = "gregorian"

time:bounds = "timebnd"

Comment:

• For time units the following units are common:
  1. seconds,
  2. minutes,
  3. hours, and
  4. days.
• Specification of zone is optional (default is UTC). Some examples for other time zones:
  1. zone = +1:00 for CET (Central European Time), or
  2. zone = +2:00 for CEST (Central European Summer Time).
• Attribute bounds must be specified, in case (some) data are e.g. mean or integral (sum) values with respect to time. Examples: Daily mean temperature, daily rainfall. These data must possess attribute cell_methods with e.g. "time: mean" or "time: sum". See also CF Conventions "cell_methods".

Time intervals

double timebnd(time,bnd) ;

Comment:

• timebnd(n,1) is equivalent to the lower bound for the n-th time step.
• timebnd(n,2) is equivalent to the upper bound for the n-th time step.
• Subsequent intervals may not be continous.
• For continuous intervals timebnd(n,2) == timebnd(n+1,1) holds.

Remarks

• A double precision variable should be used for time to guarantee sufficient accuracy..

---

back to NetCDF

---

Overview