[CF-metadata] CDM calendar date handling

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:02:53 +0100

Dear John

> Im not sure I can actually implement prefixes for calendar fields,
> since in general that would violate the need for integers.
> millisecond makes sense, but millihour doesnt.

Yes, I see. Could we include ms then, and also a, ka and Ma for a year,
1000 years and a million years, used in paleoclimate?

Regarding paleoclimate, a point I forgot is that some modellers may wish to
have years which are very large negative numbers (many more than four digits)
if they set up the model with the "true" date for the run. Although for
geological timescales you might say that this isn't necessary and you might
as well choose an arbitrary year, there is a good reason for it in Pleistocene
when you might be using the dates to relate to orbital forcing or atmospheric
composition.

Thanks for your other replies as well.

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Fri Aug 19 2011 - 08:02:53 BST