[CF-metadata] General height coordinate

From: Schmidli Juerg <schmidli>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:15:05 +0200

Dear Jonathan

> general height coordinate: I don't think we need to add this. The formula
> terms mechanism is for providing various coordinates which are combined through
> a formula to give a vertical coordinate. Your general height coordinate
> variable is a ready-made vertical coordinate variable that depends on xyzt
> indices - no computation is necessary. I think that such a variable can just
> be named in the coordinates attribute.

I agree that the above solution is feasible. But I think it makes the
analysis
of the file much more complicated. In order to identify the vertical
coordinate
system all variables specified in the coordinates attribute have to be
analyzed.
And how would you identify which of the variables listed in the
coordinates
attribute is the generalized vertical coordinate?

On the other hand, using the standard_name general_height_coordinate the
application
can immediately identify the vertical coordinate system, using the same
mechanisms
as for the other vertical coordinate systems.

Best whishes

Juerg
Received on Wed Jul 23 2003 - 07:15:05 BST