From 5f1b3b57f8280468a0b0c2e6f4c9e6109ca8d5cf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Joshua Torrance <joshua.torrance@anu.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:58:01 +1100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Added time and time_bnds

---
 .../output/file-metadata/2-1-0/2-1-0.json     |  8 +++++
 .../file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json    | 34 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../2-1-0/variable/time_bnds.json             |  7 ++++
 tests/2-1-0/test.json                         | 10 ++++++
 4 files changed, 59 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
 create mode 100644 au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time_bnds.json

diff --git a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/2-1-0.json b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/2-1-0.json
index ed32c50..9c40887 100644
--- a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/2-1-0.json
+++ b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/2-1-0.json
@@ -10,6 +10,14 @@
     },
     "variables": {
       "type": "object",
+      "properties": {
+        "time": {
+          "$ref": "variable/time.json"
+        },
+        "time_bnds": {
+          "$ref": "variable/time_bnds.json"
+        }
+      },
       "patternProperties": {
         "^.+$": {
           "$ref": "variable.json"
diff --git a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc458fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
+  "$id": "variable/time.json",
+  "title": "time",
+  "description": "The time variable for the dataset.",
+  "type": "object",
+  "properties": {
+    "axis": {
+      "const": "T"
+    },
+    "bounds": {
+      "const": "time_bnds"
+    },
+    "calendar": {
+      "const": "proleptic_gregorian"
+    },
+    "long_name": {
+      "const": "time"
+    },
+    "standard_name": {
+      "const": "time"
+    },
+    "units": {
+      "description": "Units for time should be given as \"days since X\" where X is a date or datetime formatted as yyyy-mm-dd (HH:MM).",
+      "examples": [
+        "days since 0001-01-01 00:00",
+        "days since 1970-01-01",
+        "days since -5000-12-25"
+      ],
+      "pattern": "^days since -?\\d{4}-(1[012]|0[1-9])-(3[01]|[12][0-9]|0[1-9])( ([01][0-9]|2[0-3]):[0-5][0-9])?$"
+    }
+  },
+  "additionalProperties": false
+}
diff --git a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time_bnds.json b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time_bnds.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41147fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time_bnds.json
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
+  "$id": "variable/time_bnds.json",
+  "title": "time_bnds",
+  "description": "The time_bnds variable for the dataset. Note this variable has no attributes.",
+  "const": {}
+}
diff --git a/tests/2-1-0/test.json b/tests/2-1-0/test.json
index 7191d75..64938b0 100644
--- a/tests/2-1-0/test.json
+++ b/tests/2-1-0/test.json
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@
                         "standard_name": "latitude",
                         "units": "degrees_north",
                         "long_name": "latitude"
+                    },
+                    "time": {
+                        "axis": "T",
+                        "bounds": "time_bnds",
+                        "calendar": "proleptic_gregorian",
+                        "long_name": "time",
+                        "standard_name": "time",
+                        "units": "days since 0001-01-01 00:00"
+                    },
+                    "time_bnds": {
                     }
                 }
             }

From 09bf5892a86a23417283a4f64f2385ba898e3bfc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Joshua Torrance <joshua.torrance@anu.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 13:25:09 +1100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Added option for units of reference datetime to have
 seconds

---
 .../model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json      | 5 +++--
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
index fc458fd..7d3b496 100644
--- a/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
+++ b/au.org.access-nri/model/output/file-metadata/2-1-0/variable/time.json
@@ -21,13 +21,14 @@
       "const": "time"
     },
     "units": {
-      "description": "Units for time should be given as \"days since X\" where X is a date or datetime formatted as yyyy-mm-dd (HH:MM).",
+      "description": "Units for time should be given as \"days since X\" where X is a date (yyyy-mm-dd) or a datetime (yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM or yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS)",
       "examples": [
+        "days since 0001-01-01 00:00:00",
         "days since 0001-01-01 00:00",
         "days since 1970-01-01",
         "days since -5000-12-25"
       ],
-      "pattern": "^days since -?\\d{4}-(1[012]|0[1-9])-(3[01]|[12][0-9]|0[1-9])( ([01][0-9]|2[0-3]):[0-5][0-9])?$"
+      "pattern": "^days since -?\\d{4}-(1[012]|0[1-9])-(3[01]|[12][0-9]|0[1-9])( ([01][0-9]|2[0-3]):[0-5][0-9](:[0-5][0-9])?)?$"
     }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false