[CF-metadata] representing model times in climate models

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:20:32 +0100

Dear Steve

> For what it's worth, the UDUNITS "year" is a "tropical year", which is
> the interval between two successive passages of the sun through the
> vernal equinox. This is approximately 365.242198781 days or
> 3.15569259747e7 seconds).

Thanks for that clarification. I didn't really mean to criticise the choice
for the year. The problem is that "year" isn't a well-defined quantity. In
general when people use "years since X" they mean calendar years i.e. 1 year
since 0Z on 30 Mar 2007 is 0Z on 30 Mar 2008. However, that is not what udunits
would give.

Cheers

Jonathan
Received on Fri Mar 30 2007 - 10:20:32 BST