Conventions

ESMF offers multiple ways to build and couple models. This flexibility allows many different kinds of systems to be constructed, but additional constraints, in the form of usage and content conventions, are needed to achieve interoperability.

The main conventions that are used in or with ESMF are linked at left.

• The National Unified Operational Prediction Capability (NUOPC) Layer is a work in progress, although some software is already available. It includes generic code to simplify development of Gridded and Coupler Components, and a compliance checker that helps to guide code development.
• Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions define standard names for physical fields.
• The Common Information Model describes the component structure, technical, and scientific properties of a model or simulation.