diff --git a/src/timeseries/CF_names.hpp b/src/timeseries/CF_names.hpp
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/src/timeseries/CF_names.hpp
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+//
+// Canadian Hydrological Model - The Canadian Hydrological Model (CHM) is a novel
+// modular unstructured mesh based approach for hydrological modelling
+// Copyright (C) 2018 Christopher Marsh
+//
+// This file is part of Canadian Hydrological Model.
+//
+// Canadian Hydrological Model is free software: you can redistribute it and/or
+// modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// Canadian Hydrological Model is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with Canadian Hydrological Model.  If not, see
+// <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+//
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <string>
+#include <boost/bimap.hpp>
+#include <boost/assign.hpp>
+
+// This maps netCDF CF names to/from internal CHM names
+// The bimap does not support duplicate keys so only supports the current mapping
+namespace CF_name_mapping
+{
+  // two way bimap association
+    typedef boost::bimap<std::string, std::string> _t_cf_bimap;
+    inline const _t_cf_bimap standard_names = boost::assign::list_of<_t_cf_bimap::relation>
+          ("t", "air_temperature")
+          ("rh", "relative_humidity")
+          ("t_lapse_rate","air_temperature_lapse_rate")
+          ("vw_dir", "wind_from_direction")
+          ("U_R", "wind_speed")
+          ("press", "surface_air_pressure")
+          // ("Qli", "downwelling_longwave_flux_in_air")
+          // ("Qli", "downwelling_longwave_flux")
+          // ("Qli", "surface_downwelling_longwave_flux_in_air")
+          ("Qli", "surface_downwelling_longwave_flux")
+          ("Qsi", "surface_downwelling_shortwave_flux")
+          // ("Qsi", "surface_downwelling_shortwave_flux_in_air")
+          // ("Qsi", "downwelling_shortwave_flux")
+          // ("Qsi", "downwelling_shortwave_flux_in_air")
+          ("p", "precipitation_amount");
+
+
+}
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