If you try opening in the "Station" tab of the ToolsUI: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java/v2.2/webstart/index.html you get: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: time_coverage_start must be a ISO or udunit date string these seem to be the problem: :time_coverage_start = 1072915200; // int :time_coverage_end = 1073174400; // int should be either ISO date strings or udunits ("1072915200 seconds since 1970-01-01 00 UTC") ToolsUI is a good testing tool to make things work in the IDV Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: FOS-898337 Department: Support netCDF Java Priority: Critical Status: Open