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Two dimensions may have the same size, perhaps by coincidence, without being related in any other way. Dimension names provide a way to distinguish dimensions regardless of size.
Variables are related by the dimensions they share. For example, if two
variables are defined with the same dimensions, they might represent
observations or model output for the same set of points. In the example
netCDF file, variables temp and rh share the
time, lat, and lon dimensions. The variable
rh does not have level as a dimension, perhaps because it is only
defined for a single level.
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