The Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions are a widely used standard for atmospheric, ocean, and climate data.
Documents maintained at www.cfconventions.org specify a community standard that supports interoperability.
| 6.0 |
Goals
The CF Conventions have evolved and expanded since 1.0 release in 2003 but maintain their original goals. |
| 6.1 |
CF Attributes
The 36 attributes CF defines to describe netCDF data and represent the intent of the data provider. |
| 6.2 |
Where is CF Metadata Used?
CF has been widely adopted by many earth-science projects and groups. CF is also supported or required by various software packages for analysis and visualization. |
| 6.3 |
A Brief History of CF
How a community standard gets established from the bottom up, with agreement on open processes for evolving conventions and reaching consensus. |
| 6.4 |
Principles
The CF conventions follow five general principles. |
| 6.5 |
CF Standard Names
The CF Standard Name Table version 16 currently includes over 2100 entries, from " age_of_sea_ice" to "zenith_angle". |
| 6.6 |
CF Appendices as references
The CF Appendices are very useful references. |
| 6.7 |
Future Directions for CF
An effort is currently underway to expand CF conventions coverage. |