This list was based on the NASA GCMD keyword list for locations which was valid on 12 December 2002. We retained only the names of geographical regions from the GCMD list, changing them to lower case and replacing the separators within the names by underscores to be consistent with the style used for CF standard names. We excluded (a) countries (these could be added if required), (b) regions that could be specified by coordinate ranges in CF (e.g. western hemisphere), (c) ill-defined regions (e.g. west Africa), (d) names for layers and surfaces of the Earth (e.g. mantle, sea floor), which are or would be included in standard names if required. We have also added names shown like this. Our intention is to keep this list consistent with GCMD.

arabian_sea
aral_sea
arctic_ocean
atlantic_ocean
baltic_sea
barents_sea
beaufort_sea
bellingshausen_sea
bering_sea
black_sea
caribbean_sea
caspian_sea
chukchi_sea
east_china_sea
great_lakes
gulf_of_alaska
gulf_of_mexico
hudson_bay
indian_ocean
indo_pacific_ocean
irish_sea
lake_baykal
lake_chad
lake_malawi
lake_tanganyika
lake_victoria
mediterranean_sea
north_sea
norwegian_sea
pacific_ocean
persian_gulf
red_sea
ross_sea
sea_of_japan
sea_of_okhotsk
south_china_sea
southern_ocean
weddell_sea
yellow_sea
africa
antarctica
asia
australia
central_america
eurasia
europe
greenland
north_america
south_america
global
global_land
global_ocean