Data and Metadata transformation

Since CDO version 1.5.9 the operator *setpartabn* can be used to transform data and metadata via a parameter table.
The syntax is:

cdo setpartabn,mypartab ifile ofile

mypartab is an ASCII formatted file with a namelist for each to be changed parameter.

The current implemented namelist entries are:

Entries         type     description
name            word     original name of the variable
out_name        word     new name of the variable
type            word     data type (real or double)
standard_name   word     as defined in the CF standard name table
long_name       string   describing the variable
units           string   specifying the units for the variable
comment         string   providing clarifying information concerning the variable
cell_methods    string   typically providing information concerning calculation of means or climatologies
cell_measures   string   indicates the names of the variables containing cell areas and volumes.
missing_value   float    specifying how missing data will be identified
valid_min       float    minimum valid value
valid_max       float    maximum valid value
ok_min_mean_abs float    minimum absolute mean
ok_max_mean_abs float    maximum absolute mean

Here is an example of a parameter table for one variable:

&parameter
  name            = t
  out_name        = ta
  standard_name   = air_temperature
  units           = "K"
  missing_value   = 1e+20
  valid_min       = 157.1
  valid_max       = 336.3
/

The name of the variable is t, this will be renamed to ta. The standard name will be set to air_temperature and the units will be set to "K" (converts the units if necessary). The missing value will be set to 1e+20. In addition it will be checked whether the values of the variable are in the range of 157.1 to 336.3.

The original CMOR parameter tables can be converted to the CDO parameter table with the undocumented CDO operator conv_cmor_table.
Here is an example to convert the CMOR CMIP5 table CMIP5_day to a CDO parameter table:

cdo conv_cmor_table,CMIP5_day > CMIP5_day.partab

To apply this table to a dataset use:

cdo setpartabn,CMIP5_day.partab  ifile  ofile
