From IPCC website:
http://www.ipcc-data.org/cgi-bin/downl/ar4_nc/vas/CNCM3_SRA1B_vas_c30b.tar
#Northward wind netcdf files
for file in vasnc
do gdal_translate -of ENVI “NETCDF:”$file":northward_wind" ENVI/$(echo $file | sed ‘s/.nc//g’)_northwardwind
done
Result is a flipped image (North is South and East is West)