This presentation provides a short conceptual introduction to the CF (Climate and Forecast) Conventions, presenting CF not simply as a set of file-level rules for netCDF, but as a semantic and structural metadata model for representing quantities over a domain. The talk is aimed at climate data scientists and technical practitioners who work with climate data products and need a clearer mental model of how CF expresses meaning, comparability, and interpretability.
\nThe presentation covers these main ideas:
\nThe material was adapted from earlier work prepared in 2017 at ECMWF on recommendations for encoding products in netCDF using CF, but has been substantially refactored and updated here with a stronger emphasis on the CF data model, semantic equivalence, and practical interpretation of metadata constructs such as coordinates, `cell_methods`, `bounds`, and threshold coordinates.
\n", "languages": [ { "id": "eng", "title": { "en": "English" } } ], "publication_date": "2026-03-31", "publisher": "CF Community", "resource_type": { "id": "presentation", "title": { "de": "Pr\u00e4sentation", "en": "Presentation" } }, "rights": [ { "description": { "en": "The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited." }, "icon": "cc-by-icon", "id": "cc-by-4.0", "props": { "scheme": "spdx", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode" }, "title": { "en": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International" } } ], "title": "Introduction to CF Conventions: A conceptual introduction to CF as a semantic and structural data model for climate data scientists" }, "parent": { "access": { "owned_by": { "user": "26191" }, "settings": { "accept_conditions_text": null, "allow_guest_requests": false, "allow_user_requests": false, "secret_link_expiration": 0 } }, "communities": { "default": "bfee86a1-51c3-4b09-b444-d99a5573f2d3", "entries": [ { "access": { "member_policy": "open", "members_visibility": "public", "record_submission_policy": "open", "review_policy": "closed", "visibility": "public" }, "children": { "allow": false }, "created": "2024-06-06T20:24:13.574426+00:00", "custom_fields": {}, "deletion_status": { "is_deleted": false, "status": "P" }, "id": "bfee86a1-51c3-4b09-b444-d99a5573f2d3", "links": {}, "metadata": { "curation_policy": "
The CF Community on Zenodo is committed to sharing high-quality resources that align with the CF Metadata Conventions. This policy outlines the submission, review, and approval process for ensuring that all content adheres to community standards.
\nSubmissions must directly relate to the CF conventions, including:
\nEach submission must include clear record metadata and descriptions to ensure proper identification and discoverability.
\nSubmissions will undergo a curation process:
\nContributors can submit updated versions, with clear versioning and changelogs. Previous versions will be retained for reference.
\nSubmissions must include a clear license, preferably open, to promote sharing and collaboration.
\nThe community reserves the right to remove or retract content that:
\nMembers are encouraged to provide feedback on submissions to promote best practices and improvements within the community.
\nFor any questions or assistance with submissions, please contact the CF Community at https://cfconventions.org/discussion.
", "description": "The CF metadata conventions define metadata that provide a definitive description of what the data in each variable represents, and the spatial and temporal properties of the data, to promote the processing and sharing of files.", "page": "The CF (Climate and Forecast) Metadata Conventions are designed to promote the processing and sharing of files created with the netCDF API. The conventions define metadata that provide a definitive description of what the data in each variable represents, and the spatial and temporal properties of the data. This enables users of data from different sources to decide which quantities are comparable, and facilitates building applications with powerful extraction, regridding, and display capabilities. The CF convention includes a standard name table, which defines strings that identify physical quantities.
\nThe CF Community on Zenodo is a collaborative space for sharing and publishing datasets, documentation, and tools that adhere to CF metadata conventions. Here, community members can contribute resources that advance the adoption and implementation of these standards, ensuring that the community continues to grow and evolve.
\nWe encourage all members to actively participate, share knowledge, and contribute to the CF conventions to promote best practices in scientific data sharing.
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