This page lists large projects and activities that draw on the CF Conventions for metadata. If you have any additions or corrections for this page, please submit an issue on the CF Website GitHub repo (see the Contributing Guide for more details).
The description of each project and activity should give some indication of to what extent the CF conventions are used.
Many model intercomparison projects (“MIPs”) are under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme and supported by either of the two core projects Earth System Modelling and Observations (ESMO) and Regional Information for Society (RIfS).
The objective of CMIP is to better understand past, present and future climate changes arising from natural, unforced variability or in response to changes in radiative forcing in a multi-model context. A specific committee, the WGCM Infrastructure Panel (WIP) is charged with coordinating infrastructure support for CMIP. It works with projects funded to develop software and supporting infrastructure that facilitates access to and analysis of the CMIP model output. It defines specifications and standards that ensure model output is written in a common structure and format, and that it is archived and made accessible worldwide in a common way. These specifications and standards are collected into a Data Request (CMIP DRQ).
The vision of CORDEX is to advance and coordinate through global partnerships the science and application of regional climate downscaling of data directly from contemporary global climate models. The WCRP views regional downscaling as both an important research topic and an opportunity to engage a broader community of climate scientists in its activities. Regional climate information is more than ever needed for decision-making on societal issues such as vulnerability and adaptation to a changing climate with weather/water extremes. For infrastructure support, data and metadata standards CORDEX draws on and contributes to the work of WIP. Similar to CMIP, these data specifications are collected into a Data Request, the CORDEX DRQ.
Input4MIPS is an activity to coordinate and make available the boundary condition and forcing datasets needed for CMIP. Various datasets are needed for the pre-industrial control (piControl), AMIP, and historical simulations, and additional datasets are needed for many of the CMIP-endorsed model intercomparison projects (MIPs) experiments.
Obs4MIPs is an effort to make observational data more accessible for climate model evaluation, development and research. It does so by providing observational products technically aligned with climate model data.
ISIMIP offers a framework to compare climate impact projections in different sectors and at different scales. Consistent climate and socio-economic input data provide the basis for a cross-sectoral integration of impact projections. The focus was put on on providing cross-sectorally consistent projections of the impacts of different levels of global warming in the 21st century. The common set of scenarios made use of climate projections from five Global Climate Models (GCMs) driven by the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Thus, ISIMIP was established as a natural extension of the work done within the Coupled Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP).
EUMETSAT uses CF for all data dissemination from the Meteosat Third Generation (geostationary) launched and soon operational, and upcoming EPS Second Generation polar orbiters, as well as for numerous joint missions and projects.
ESA CCI Data Standards are community-driven requirements ensuring consistent essential climate variable (ECV) data production across the CCI programme. Version 2.3 is the latest. The requirements include data production conformance to the network Common Data Form (netCDF) format, the Climate and Forecasting (CF) metadata conventions, the Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD), and Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) compliant discovery metadata.
ESGF is a collaboration involving multiple international organizations that provides access to a vast array of climate data. The software stack that provides the ESGF federated services draws heavily on CF compliant metadata and additional conventions developed and maintained by the different MIPS that ESGF supports.
Copernicus CDS provides comprehensive climate data and services. Depending on data type several formats are used, including netCDF/CF. External data providers are requested to follow a specified data format that builds on CF (see this link for details).
Within the overaching framework of WMO Information System (WIS) extensions to the Climate and Forecast Conventions (CF conventions) for netCDF are developed (WMO-CF extensions, or profiles). They aim to reduce the effort involved in specifying data products and ensure interoperability by providing standardized semantics and metadata. The level of standardization provided by the WMO-CF extensions is in many cases greater than what is provided by the CF conventions to satisfy the specific WMO operational needs to support Earth System monitoring and prediction. New netCDF profiles are defined to act as templates for reporting data from different sources.
This profile should be used for the representation of weather radar and lidar data in the native instrument-centric polar coordinates. The profile is now published in WMO-No. 1257 Volume VII. In addition this profile is being extended and updated in CFRadial2.
This profile should be used for the reporting of meteorological and/or oceanographic observations along one or more trajectories, including both at or near the ocean surface and at depth. The first draft is available via this webpage.
This profile should be used for the reporting of meteorological, atmospheric chemistry and air quality observations along one or more trajectories from a single platform. The trajectory may follow an undulating profile. The first draft is available via this webpage.
Table explaining key acronyms appearing in this page.
| Acronym | Explanation |
|---|---|
| ACDD | Attribute Convention for Data Discovery |
| AMIP | Atmosphere Model lntercomparison Project is a subproject of CMIP |
| C3S | Copernicus Climate Change Service |
| CCI | The Climate Change Initiative of the European Space Agency |
| CDS | Copernicus Climate Data Store |
| CF | Climate and Forecasts Conventions |
| CMIP | Coupled Model Intercomparison Project that continues in cycles (CMIP3, CMIP5, CMIP6, …) |
| CORDEX | Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment |
| DRQ | Jargon acronym for the CMIP or CORDEX Data Request |
| ECV | Essential Climate Variables identified by the Global Climate Observing System |
| EPS | EUMETSAT Polar System |
| ESA | European Space Agency |
| ESGF | Earth System Grid Federation |
| ESMO | Earth System Modelling and Observations is a core activity of the WCRP |
| EUMETSAT | European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites |
| GCM | Global Climate Model |
| INSPIRE | Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community |
| ISIMIP | Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project |
| MIP | Model Intercomparison Project |
| NetCDF | Network Common Data Format is a self-describing binary file format |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the USA |
| RCM | Regional Climate Model |
| RCP | Representative Concentration Pathways are various projected greenhouse gas emission and concentration pathways |
| RIfS | Regional Information for Society is a core activity of the WCRP |
| WCRP | World Climate Research Programme |
| WGCM | WCRP Working Group on Coupled Modelling |
| WIP | WGCM Infrastructure Panel |
| WIS | WMO Information System |
| WMO | World Meteorological Organization |
CF Metadata