[gradsusr] 365 day calendar question

[Andrew Friedman]

Hi GrADS users,

I have a small question about best practices for writing a control file for 365 day calendar output.

I've been succesfully able to open CMIP3 model monthly netcdf files with a 365 calendar using xdfopen,
following previous instructions on the GrADS forum:
http://gradsusr.org/pipermail/gradsusr/2011-June/013406.html

with a line like 'TDEF time 1560 LINEAR 16Jan1870 1mo' in the control file

Is it important that I also include the line
' OPTIONS 365_day_calendar' 
in the control file when I am opening monthly data? Or is this only important for daily data?
It doesn't seem to cause any changes, but I'm writing control files for many files and am wondering if there could be some differences in the time axis. 

Thanks much,
Andrew


Andrew Friedman
Graduate Student, UC Berkeley Geography
andfried at berkeley.edu