diff --git a/dap/DapUtils.cc b/dap/DapUtils.cc
index 4544fbd5b0..44bbc70afe 100644
--- a/dap/DapUtils.cc
+++ b/dap/DapUtils.cc
@@ -307,7 +307,15 @@ uint64_t crsaibv_process_variable(
         }
         else {
             // width_ll() returns the number of bytes needed to hold the data
-            uint64_t vsize = var->width_ll(true);
+            uint64_t vsize = 0;
+            // If the data type is string, in C++, sizeof(string) is always 24. So the total size for a string array is
+            // always 24 x number of elements of this array, which may cause false positive for the server to issue
+            // an error that the maximum response size is exceeded. To avoid this case, we choose to use the minimal possible string size
+            // for a C string 2: 1 character and 1 terminator. This is also the case for a real NASA file.
+            if (var->type()==dods_array_c && var->var()->type() == dods_str_c)
+                vsize = 2*var->length_ll(); 
+            else
+                vsize = var->width_ll(true);
             response_size += vsize;
 
             BESDEBUG(MODULE_VERBOSE, prolog << "  " << get_dap_decl(var) << "(" << vsize << " bytes)" << endl);
diff --git a/dap/unit-tests/DapUtilsTest.cc b/dap/unit-tests/DapUtilsTest.cc
index 6cf419cf0b..4afd71fea4 100644
--- a/dap/unit-tests/DapUtilsTest.cc
+++ b/dap/unit-tests/DapUtilsTest.cc
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ class DapUtilsTest : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
 
         stringstream msg;
         uint64_t response_size = 0;
-        uint64_t expected_response_size = 1016;
+        uint64_t expected_response_size = 752;
         uint64_t max_var_size = 200;
         std::vector<std::string> too_big;
 
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ class DapUtilsTest : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
             for(auto entry:too_big){
                 DBG(cerr << prolog << "  " << entry <<  endl);
             }
-            CPPUNIT_ASSERT( too_big.size() == 2 );
+            CPPUNIT_ASSERT( too_big.size() == 1 );
         }
         else {
             CPPUNIT_FAIL("ERROR: No variables were deemed too big!");