[CF-metadata] standard name proposals

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 19:51:20 +0100

Dear John

> in_situ_density_of_seawater kg/m^3
> potential_density_of_seawater kg/m^3
> downwelling_photosynthetically_active_radiation microE/m^2/s

For the first two, we already have sea_water_density
and sea_water_potential_density. I will clarify the help to indicate that
plain density means in-situ.

Yes, the 1000 can't be subtracted off without comment.

> I assume that the first sentence means that "kg/m^3 _at_ -1000" is definitely
> not allowed?
That's right. However, I think the add_offset attribute could be used. What
do you think - would that be appropriate? If not, we can instead define
standard names for the "sigma" quantities (i.e. -1000).

What is the unit microE? If this is an energy unit, then the quantity is
a radiative flux, so we should call it
downwelling_photosynthetically_active_radiative_flux W/m2
like the other ones. Would that be OK? Also, should it be
surface_downwelling_...? - or is a quantity with a vertical coordinate, in
which case we should append _in_sea_water, by analogy with
e.g. downward_heat_flux_in_air.

Cheers

Jonathan
Received on Mon Aug 04 2003 - 12:51:20 BST