CF-1.0 Compliance

[crode1968]

Some visualization softwares are only able to handle ROMS' netcdf output files, when attributes for some variables are added. These attributes describe the relations between real world and model model coordinate systems and are in compliance with the CF-1.0 standard.

I suggest to introduce the coordinate attribute, like

h:coordinates = "lon_rho lat_rho" ;
u:coordinates = "lon_u lat_u";

I do not know if software packages in general can use the standard_name for the rho, u, v and psi points in parallel. Therefore, I would suggest to set this attribute only for the rho points, because most variables are defined on this points.

lon_rho:standard_name = "longitude" ;

In addition, I would like that the attribute positive is added to describe the orientation of vertical axes.

h:positive = "down";

This attribute allows to interpret the orientation of an axis. In the example the software might realize, that the deep is getting deeper for higher numbers. Unfortunately, some software packets do not evaluated this attribute.

To prevent problems by introducing the additional parameters, I suggest to introduce a FLAG, which is not set in the standard case. Since ferret, for example, gives a warning message when data containing the coordinate attribute are loaded, these might cause a flood of trouble tickets and long discussions in the wiki. This might be preventable by setting undef FLAG.