diff --git a/io/module_write_netcdf.F90 b/io/module_write_netcdf.F90
index c11e45b4b..787894ebc 100644
--- a/io/module_write_netcdf.F90
+++ b/io/module_write_netcdf.F90
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ subroutine write_netcdf(wrtfb, filename, &
        ncerr = nf90_def_var(ncid, "time_iso", NF90_CHAR, [ch_dimid,time_dimid], timeiso_varid); NC_ERR_STOP(ncerr)
        ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "long_name", "valid time"); NC_ERR_STOP(ncerr)
        ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "description", "ISO 8601 datetime string"); NC_ERR_STOP(ncerr)
+       ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "_Encoding", "UTF-8"); NC_ERR_STOP(ncerr)
 
        ! coordinate variable attributes based on output_grid type
        if (trim(output_grid(grid_id)) == 'gaussian_grid' .or. &
diff --git a/io/module_wrt_grid_comp.F90 b/io/module_wrt_grid_comp.F90
index 0e37d230c..850e0ca29 100644
--- a/io/module_wrt_grid_comp.F90
+++ b/io/module_wrt_grid_comp.F90
@@ -3130,6 +3130,8 @@ subroutine ioCompRun(comp, importState, exportState, clock, rc)
     real(ESMF_KIND_R4)               :: valueR4
     real(ESMF_KIND_R8)               :: valueR8
     logical                          :: thereAreVerticals
+    integer                          :: ch_dimid, timeiso_varid
+    character(len=ESMF_MAXSTR)       :: time_iso
 
     rc = ESMF_SUCCESS
 
@@ -3271,6 +3273,10 @@ subroutine ioCompRun(comp, importState, exportState, clock, rc)
                                  name="time", value=time, rc=rc)
           if (ESMF_LogFoundError(rcToCheck=rc, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__)) return
 
+          call ESMF_AttributeGet(grid, convention="NetCDF", purpose="FV3", &
+                                 name="time_iso", value=time_iso, rc=rc)
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundError(rcToCheck=rc, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__)) return
+
           ncerr = nf90_redef(ncid=ncid)
           if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
 
@@ -3285,6 +3291,17 @@ subroutine ioCompRun(comp, importState, exportState, clock, rc)
                                dimids=(/dimid/), varid=varid)
           if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
 
+          ncerr = nf90_def_dim(ncid, "nchars", 20, ch_dimid)
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+          ncerr = nf90_def_var(ncid, "time_iso", NF90_CHAR, [ch_dimid,dimid], timeiso_varid)
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+          ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "long_name", "valid time")
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+          ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "description", "ISO 8601 datetime string")
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+          ncerr = nf90_put_att(ncid, timeiso_varid, "_Encoding", "UTF-8")
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+
           ncerr = nf90_enddef(ncid=ncid)
 
           if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
@@ -3293,6 +3310,10 @@ subroutine ioCompRun(comp, importState, exportState, clock, rc)
 
           if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
 
+          ncerr = nf90_put_var(ncid, timeiso_varid, values=[trim(time_iso)])
+
+          if (ESMF_LogFoundNetCDFError(ncerr, msg=ESMF_LOGERR_PASSTHRU, line=__LINE__, file=__FILE__, rcToReturn=rc)) return
+
           ! loop over all the grid attributes that start with "time:", and
           ! put them on the "time" variable in the NetCDF file