CDO

I have a bunch of netCDF files, all monthly means of some 3D fields, in which the time dimension was not stored correctly so that I cannot process the files with CDOs (or NCOs).

Does someone know a solution how I can correct this?

Here's how the files are structured, ncdump -h snapshots:

dimensions:
THM = 29 ;
THI = 30 ;
LAT = 72 ;
LON = 96 ;
RECORD = UNLIMITED ; // (1 currently)
date\ dim = 5 ;
variables:
float THM ;
THM:standard_name = "theta level" ;
THM:units = "kelvin" ;
float THI ;
THI:standard_name = "theta level interface" ;
THI:units = "kelvin" ;
float LAT ;
LAT:standard_name = "latitude" ;
LAT:units = "radians_north" ;
float LON ;
LON:standard_name = "longitude" ;
LON:units = "radians_east" ;
...
int DATE ;
DATE:standard_name = "date" ;
DATE:units = "YYYY:MM:DD:hh:mm" ;

// global attributes:
...

'ncdump -v DATE filename' returns the time information of the file, which in my opinion should be better stored in the RECORD dimension:

data:

DATE =
  2009, 12, 16, 12, 0 ;
}

Any suggestion welcome!

Rene