What does cmorization mean?

The process of rewriting climate model output (cmor) to a common intercomparable data model is usually referred to as cmorization. The goal is to produce CF-compliant inter-comparable climate model output for use in model intercomparison projects (MIPs) like, e.g., CMIP6. Usually, the cmor library is used which provides APIs for C, Fortran and python and is also linked to, e.g., the cmor operator of the climate data operator tool (CDO).

Data and metadata conventions for a MIP are usually stored in the form of json tables that contain entries for each variable and its metadata. Metadata is attached in the form of NetCDF variable or global attributes. Additionally, data might have to be manipulated (e.g., unit conversion or conversion of precision)