[CF-metadata] transport across line

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 09:15:34 +0100

Dear all

A postscript to my posting about new standard names: One of them is
"sea_ice_transport_across_line" (kg s-1), where transport_across_line has been
defined to mean that which crosses a particular line on the Earth's surface;
formally this means the integral along the line of the normal component of the
transport. To use this informatively we will need a standard_name of "line"
and a list of its possible values, as we have done for "region". The only line
initially proposed is fram_strait, but for other oceanographic quantities you
can imagine many which would be useful, such as drake_passage, davis_strait,
straits_of_gibraltar, bering_strait and the many ocean-crossing sections which
have been occupied. Like the regions, these names give a fairly precise
definition to a geographical entity whose precise realisation will differ from
model to model with the grid. If necessary, both region and line could be
precisely described with a polyline of (lat,lon) coordinates, but so far
no-one has asked for this.

Does this seem sensible?

Cheers

Jonathan
Received on Sun Jul 10 2005 - 02:15:34 BST