CF compliance, including the Time dimension, xtime variable and _FillValue

MPAS-Dev / MPAS-Model

Repository for MPAS models and shared framework releases.

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CF compliance, including the Time dimension, xtime variable and _FillValue #437

Open xylar opened 4 years ago

xylar commented 4 years ago

There are a number of issues with the MPAS framework that keep biting us (especially new users) in the behind. These include:

The xtime variable is highly non-standard and should be replaced with something like days since <date>
MPAS components output arrays with various choices of the "fill value", but the _FillValue attribute is not set for any of them. Thus, analysis and viz. tools cannot figure out what the fill values are and tedious intermediate steps are required.

xylar commented 4 years ago

This (particularly the _FillValue issue) caused trouble for @caozd999 today so wanted to make sure there's at least a place for folks to complain...

xylar commented 4 years ago

The lack of consistent _FillValue is giving @lizcarlson trouble today, so there's another vote for fixing this issue...

czender commented 4 years ago

@wenshanw and I at UCI are attempting to resolve the _FillValue issue in the next few months as part of E3SM Infrastructure work, with more CF-compliance after that. We will post significant milestones here.