CMIP3 Model Standard Output

The following list of standard output for coupled GCMs is intended both to serve the immediate needs of the IPCC and to become a recommended "core set" of variables for CMIP. Modeling groups contributing output to the IPCC and CMIP database must ensure it meets rather strict format and metadata requirements. These requirements yield files produced in network Common Data Form (netCDF; see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf), which has become the most popular form for exchanging ocean-atmosphere model output. The files will be "self-describing", and the metadata contained in the files will conform with the NetCDF Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions (see http://cfconventions.org/). The new CF conventions for netCDF data generalize and extend the Cooperative Ocean / Atmosphere Research Data Service (COARDS) conventions developed in the 1990s. Note that the CF convention establishes standard names for climate and weather variables, identifying the physical quantity. These standard names are given in the tables below. Note that more than one field can be associated with the same standard name because different fields sampled in different ways (e.g., surface air temperature vs. upper air temperature) refer to the same physical quantity. Nevertheless, one can uniquely identify each stored field by considering additional metadata stored in the file (e.g., dimension information). Extended definitions of CF standard names, which answer the question "What do you mean precisely by this quantity?", may be found on the Web at https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/build/cf-standard-name-table.html.