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https://cable.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
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Update dimensionless units in CABLE offline output to be CF-compliant #405

Open SeanBryan51 opened 1 month ago

SeanBryan51 commented 1 month ago

Variables in the CABLE offline model output which are dimensionless have their units attribute set to - which does not comply with the CF-conventions (see units section). The units attribute for dimensionless variables should have units set to 1 or have no units attribute defined.

SeanBryan51 commented 1 month ago

This is required for CABLE output to work directly with ILAMB (https://github.com/CABLE-LSM/CABLE/issues/210). See https://github.com/CABLE-LSM/benchcab-ilamb-config/issues/1 for more details.

SeanBryan51 commented 1 month ago

It looks like CABLE currently is working with the ALMA standard for its input and output files which sets the units attribute for dimensionless quantities to -. I think there needs to be a discussion in the community if the ALMA standard should be superseded by the CF conventions.

SeanBryan51 commented 1 month ago

ALMA conventions also documented here: https://modelevaluation.org/variableStandards

SeanBryan51 commented 1 month ago

Gab (@gabsun) informed me that the ALMA standard is typically updated on a per MIP basis and suggested that ALMA could be updated to be CF compliant.