clarification on MC descriptor files

[Chris Anderson <candersn@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have another question regarding MC files.  First, thanks to those who 
responded to my first question.  Your suggestions have helped me get up to 
speed very quickly.

My situation is this.  I have 61 netcdf files.  Each file contains 24 
hours of model output at an hourly interval.  The time coordinate is the 
tricky part.  The time coordinate uses a relative time axis.  The 
reference time is unique to each file.  For example:
MMOUT_DOMAIN1_01.nc has reference time of 1-JUN-1993 01:00:00
MMOUT_DOMAIN1_02.nc has reference time of 2-JUN-1993 01:00:00
...
MMOUT_DOMAIN1_61.nc has reference time of 31-JUL-1993 01:00:00

If I understand the namelist file format, there can be only one reference 
time as specified by setting D_T0TIME.  If this is true, then the only 
option I see to use the MC capability is to rewrite the netcdf files with 
a fixed reference time.  Does this seem correct?  Does anyone know of an 
alternative?  (I have a lot of netcdf files, actually much more than 
61, and I'm hoping for a more convenient approach than rewriting all of my 
files.)

BTW, this is the error message I received when I asked ferret to use the 
example.des file shown below.

yes? set data example.des
 **TMAP ERR: error in line definition
             A gap or overlap exists in time axis




example.des
 &FORMAT_RECORD
  D_TYPE        =  '  MC',
  D_FORMAT      =  '  1A',
 /
 &BACKGROUND_RECORD
  D_TITLE       =  'Control',
  D_T0TIME      = '30-JUL-1993 01:00:00',
  D_TIME_UNIT   = 60.0,
  D_TIME_MODULO = .FALSE.,
 /
 &MESSAGE_RECORD
  D_MESSAGE     =  '    ',
  D_ALERT_ON_OPEN      = F,
  D_ALERT_ON_OUTPUT    = F,
 /
 &EXTRA_RECORD
 /
 &STEPFILE_RECORD
  S_FILENAME      ='/rcm/dissertation/coarse_control/MMOUT_DOMAIN1_60.nc'
  S_START  =    0,
  S_END    =  1380,
  S_DELTA  = 60,
  S_NUM_OF_FILES  =   1,
 /
 &STEPFILE_RECORD
 /
 &STEPFILE_RECORD
  S_FILENAME      ='/rcm/dissertation/coarse_control/MMOUT_DOMAIN1_61.nc'
  S_START  =    0,
  S_END    =  1380,
  S_DELTA  = 60,
  S_NUM_OF_FILES  =   1,
 /
 &STEPFILE_RECORD
  s_filename    = '**END OF STEPFILES**'
 /