Until the outcome of the 2025 federal election, the Australian Government is operating under caretaker conventions
The format of ACCESS NetCDF files has undergone significant changes with APS3. NetCDF files now contain much richer metadata that is intended to be broadly compliant with CF 1.6 conventions while maintaining backward compatibility with the APS2 format.
NetCDF field variables now include the following additional attributes:
New Variable Attribute | Convention | Example Value |
---|---|---|
standard_name | CF-1.6 | air_pressure_at_sea_level |
coordinates | CF-1.6 | forecast_reference_time |
grid_mapping | CF-1.6 | latitude_longitude |
cell_methods | CF-1.6 | time: mean |
bounds (for coordinate vars) | CF-1.6 | time_bnds |
coverage_content_type | ACDD-1.3 | modelResult |
um_stash_source | N/A | m01s16i222 |
marsParam | N/A | 228202 |
New supporting variables (e.g. "forecast_reference_time", "latitude_longitude", "time_bnds", "lat_bnds" etc) have also been added in accordance with the CF conventions.
The following global NetCDF attributes have been added:
New Global Attribute | Convention | Example Value |
---|---|---|
title | CF-1.6 | ACCESS-Global Model Forecast |
institution | CF-1.6 | Australian Bureau of Meteorology |
summary | ACDD-1.3 | Global Numerical Weather Prediction Data |
license | ACDD-1.3 | Bureau Express Licence |
date_created | ACDD-1.3 | 2019-10-22T02:32:43 |
standard_name_vocabulary | ACDD-1.3 | CF Standard Name Table v67 |
stash_vocabulary | N/A | http://reference.metoffice.gov.uk/um/stash |
APS2 NetCDF Variable Name | Units | APS3 Name | Units | Change Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
accum_conv_prcp | kg m-2 | accum_conv_rain | kg m-2 | Renamed, field determined to be a rainfall quantity |
accum_ls_prcp | kg m-2 | accum_ls_rain | kg m-2 | Renamed, field determined to be a rainfall quantity |
accum_evap_sea | kg m-2 | av_evap_sea | kg m-2 s-1 | Replaced, accum_evap_sea field values were invalid |
z0 | m | sfc_rough_len | m | Renamed/Replaced, see NWP Data Notes |