CF conventions
CF conventions are community standards for describing climate and forecast data in a structured, machine-readable way. They are commonly used with netCDF files so that data variables, coordinates, units, and metadata can be interpreted consistently across tools and projects.
What they standardize
CF conventions help standardize:
- coordinate variables such as time, latitude, longitude, and vertical axes
- variable names, units, and semantic meaning through standard names and attributes
- metadata describing cell methods, bounds, and grid mappings
- the overall structure needed for interoperable geoscience datasets
Why they matter
Without shared conventions, two datasets may both be readable as netCDF files while still being difficult to combine or interpret correctly. CF conventions reduce that ambiguity by making common expectations explicit.
Relation to netCDF and CDL
CF conventions are not a file format by themselves. They build on formats such as netCDF and their textual representation in common data language. netCDF provides the storage model; CF provides shared semantic structure.
In this garden
CF conventions are part of the open-science and data-standards branch because they turn raw array storage into reusable climate-data products.
- ATMODAT depends on rich, self-describing metadata practice.
- UC2 data standard applies project-level conventions on top of netCDF-based workflows.
- Metadata and Provenance provide the broader descriptive and workflow context.
See also: netCDF, common data language, ATMODAT, UC2 data standard, Metadata, Provenance