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Hi Cathy, > ncdump -t -v time filename outputs the variable times in a readable > format but the time attributes are not interpreted. Specifically, it is > very useful to have the time actual_range attribute be interpreted to > a human readable format. Can this be added? The "actual_range" attribute is not a standard CF attribute convention or part of the netCDF User's Guide conventions, although I see it's part of the ESRL PSD conventions. Currently we're supporting some CF conventions (e.g. "calendar") in ncdump and others in libcf, but it would be difficult to support lots of other conventions with our current resources. Also there is no way to identify the units of the "actual_range" attribute, as attributes can't have attributes in the netCDF data model. If there was a way to indicate which attributes inherit the units of a variable, that would make what you request practical. One way to eventually get support for something like this would be to get it adopted by the CF community. Another possibility would be support for some sort of ncdump convention plugin interface to permit adding special processing for alternate conventions. But then a similar plugin would be needed for ncgen to preserve the ncdump/ncgen symmetry (which currently doesn't exist for handling the "calendar" attribute). --Russ Russ Rew UCAR Unidata Program address@hidden http://www.unidata.ucar.edu Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: WJF-487790 Department: Support netCDF Priority: Critical Status: Closed