The NetCDF Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions, Version 1.0, describes consensus representations for climate and forecast data using the netCDF-3 data model.

Features of the CF Conventions:

• CF-aware software can automatically determine the space-time location of variables (facilitating analysis and visualization).
• Metadata describing each variable is adequate to determine whether variables from different sources are comparable.

The 1.0 version of this document was

• Originally developed and maintained as a volunteer effort by five authors
• Last modified in October 2003
• Intended primarily for climate model output conventions

Now CF has become so important and widely used (for all IPCC models, for example) that a more formal process has been defined for its continuance and evolution.

• CF development and maintence has been opened to a wider community.
• Use has broadened to weather and ocean models, observational data, and application areas such as archiving projects and GIS.
• A community governance structure has been established for adopting changes

2007 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > CF Conventions