• A CF standard name is not a netCDF variable name, but instead a value for the standard_name variable attribute.
• A standard_name attribute identifies the physical quantity of a variable, for example "air_temperature", "divergence_of_wind", "plant_respiration_carbon_flux", or "tendency_of_atmosphere_mass_content_of_particulate_organic_matter_dry_aerosol_due_to_net_production_and_emission".
• The CF standard name table includes a precise definition of each quantity named, e.g. for the long standard_name above, it includes this definition
• The standard name is independent of units of measure Conformable units are specified in the units attribute, e.g. "kg m-2 s-1"
.
• The standard name is also independent of coordinate variables used to describe its variation.
• As a standard for naming physical quantities, the table of names and definitions is independent of netCDF.
• There are Guidelines for constructing CF standard names, and anyone can propose and justify the need for new names.

2011 Unidata NetCDF Workshop > CF Conventions