[CF-metadata] Standard name and area type tables July update

From: Alison Pamment - UKRI STFC <alison.pamment>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2018 14:18:03 +0000

Dear All,

The standard name and area type tables have both been updated. The standard name table is now at Version 56 and the area type table is at Version 9, both dated 4th July 2018. The standard name changes have also been published on the NERC Vocabulary Server and the area type changes will be added shortly. The full list of changes is given at the end of this message.

DirK Notz and Bruno Tremblay has been added to the list of standard name contributors: http://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/docs/standard-name-contributors.html.

Almost all the names needed for CMIP6 have now been published - there are fewer than a dozen remaining and several of those have been agreed since I committed the changes for version 56. I will shortly be starting to address the list of non-CMIP related names that are waiting for attention, of which there are now quite a number.

Best wishes,
Alison

---
V9 area type changes
Four new area types have been added in support of CMIP6 LS3MIP:
fresh_free_water
'An area type of "fresh_free_water" means a free interface between freshwater and the atmosphere without vegetation or other obstructions.'
ice_on_land
'The area type "ice_on_land" means ice in glaciers, ice caps, grounded ice sheets (grounded and floating shelves), river and lake ice, and any other ice on a land surface, such as frozen flood water. This is distinct from the area type 'land ice' which has a narrower definition.'
ice_and_snow_on_land
'The area type "ice_and_snow_on_land" means ice in glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets (grounded and floating shelves), river and lake ice, any other ice on a land surface, such as frozen flood water, and snow lying on such ice or on the land surface.'
unfrozen_soil
'An area type of "unfrozen_soil" means that the soil at the surface is unfrozen. Frozen soil may be present at lower levels within a soil model.'
---
Version 56 standard name changes
1. New names
a. Names proposed by Robert Pincus and Daniel Feldman for CMIP6 RFMIP
asymmetry_factor_of_ambient_aerosol_particles (Canonical units: 1)
surface_diffuse_shortwave_hemispherical_reflectance (Canonical units: 1)
surface_direct_shortwave_hemispherical_reflectance (Canonical units: 1)
b. Names proposed by Dirk Notz and Martin Juckes for CMIP6 SIMIP.
basal_downward_heat_flux_in_sea_ice (Canonical units: W m-2)
downwelling_shortwave_flux_in_sea_water_at_sea_ice_base (Canonical units: W m-2)
fraction_of_time_with_sea_ice_area_fraction_above_threshold (Canonical units: 1)
maximum_over_coordinate_rotation_of_sea_ice_horizontal_shear_strain_rate (Canonical units: s-1)
maximum_over_coordinate_rotation_of_sea_ice_horizontal_shear_stress (Canonical units: N m-1)
salt_flux_into_sea_water_due_to_sea_ice_thermodynamics (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
sea_ice_area_transport_across_line (Canonical units: m2 s-1)
sea_ice_average_normal_horizontal_stress (Canonical units: N m-1)
sea_ice_basal_drag_coefficient_for_momentum_in_sea_water (Canonical units: 1)
sea_ice_basal_temperature (Canonical units: K)
sea_ice_mass_content_of_salt (Canonical units: kg m-2)
sea_ice_melt_pond_thickness (Canonical units: m)
sea_ice_x_force_per_unit_area_due_to_coriolis_effect (Canonical units: N m-2)
sea_ice_x_force_per_unit_area_due_to_sea_surface_tilt (Canonical units: N m-2)
sea_ice_x_internal_stress (Canonical units: N m-2)
sea_ice_y_force_per_unit_area_due_to_coriolis_effect (Canonical units: N m-2)
sea_ice_y_force_per_unit_area_due_to_sea_surface_tilt (Canonical units: N m-2)
sea_ice_y_internal_stress (Canonical units: N m-2)
snow_transport_across_line_due_to_sea_ice_dynamics (Canonical units: kg s-1)
surface_downward_heat_flux_in_sea_ice (Canonical units: W m-2)
tendency_of_sea_ice_amount_due_to_lateral_melting (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_sea_ice_amount_due_to_sea_ice_dynamics (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_sea_ice_amount_due_to_sea_ice_thermodynamics (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_surface_snow_amount_due_to_conversion_of_snow_to_sea_ice (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_surface_snow_amount_due_to_drifting_into_sea (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_surface_snow_amount_due_to_sea_ice_dynamics (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
thickness_of_ice_on_sea_ice_melt_pond (Canonical units: m)
water_flux_into_sea_water_due_to_surface_drainage (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
c. Names proposed by Martin Juckes for CMIP6 LS3MIP
canopy_albedo (Canonical units: 1)
change_over_time_in_groundwater_amount (Canonical units: kg m-2)
change_over_time_in_land_water_amount (Canonical units: kg m-2)
change_over_time_in_river_water_amount (Canonical units: kg m-2)
downward_liquid_water_mass_flux_into_groundwater (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
land_surface_liquid_water_amount (Canonical units: kg m-2)
surface_water_evaporation_flux (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
tendency_of_canopy_water_amount_due_to_evaporation_of_intercepted_precipitation (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
d. Names proposed by Martin Juckes for CMIP6 PMIP
land_water_amount (Canonical units: kg m-2))
tendency_of_atmosphere_mass_content_of_insoluble_dust_dry_aerosol_particles_due_to_deposition (Canonical units: kg m-2 s-1)
2. New aliases
a. One alias was introduced for consistency with the new SIMIP name, tendency_of_surface_snow_amount_due_to_conversion_of_snow_to_sea_ice
tendency_of_sea_ice_amount_due_to_snow_conversion -> tendency_of_sea_ice_amount_due_to_conversion_of_snow_to_sea_ice
b. One new alias was introduced following the discussion of evaporation and evapotranspiration terms for LS3MIP.
water_evaporation_flux -> water_evapotranspiration_flux            
c. Two new aliases were introduced following discussion of ocean heat content names needed for OMIP. It was decided not to include 'integral' in the names, but to expand on this in the definitions.
integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content -> sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content            
integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content -> sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content            
3. Modifications to definitions of existing terms.
a. During discussion of the SIMIP names a definition of 'sea_ice' was agreed: ' "Sea ice" means all ice floating in the sea which has formed from freezing sea water, rather than by other processes such as calving of land ice to form icebergs.' This was added to 64 existing sea ice names, as well as the new SIMIP names.
b. During discussion of both LS3MIP and RFMIP names a definition of 'albedo' was agreed: 'Albedo is the ratio of outgoing to incoming shortwave irradiance, where 'shortwave irradiance' means that both the incoming and outgoing radiation are integrated across the solar spectrum.' This was added to 8 existing names.
c. During discussion of the LS3MIP names an improved definition of 'canopy' was agreed: 'The canopy is often considered to be the outer surfaces of the vegetation. Plant height and the distribution, orientation and shape of plant leaves within a canopy influence the atmospheric environment and many plant processes within the canopy. Reference: AMS Glossary http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Canopy.' This was added to the existing name canopy_snow_amount as well as the two new canopy names. The same text will be added to 11 other existing names in the next update.
d. Martin Juckes reminded me that a discussion took place in 2017 regarding the sign conventions of 'upwelling' and 'downwelling' (http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/2017/009413.html). It was agreed that the convention should be stated explicitly in the definitions of all upwelling/downwelling names for the avoidance of doubt. Therefore the sentence 'The sign convention is that "upwelling" is positive upwards and "downwelling" is positive downwards' has been added to 98 existing names and all new upwelling/downwelling names.
e. Martin Juckes proposed that the definitions of all sea water heat content names should explain that they are calculated by integrating over some depth of the ocean. It was agreed to add text similar to that recently introduced for all integral_wrt_depth|height names: 'If used for a layer heat content, coordinate bounds should be used to define the extent of the layers. If no coordinate bounds are specified, it is assumed that the integral is calculated over the entire vertical extent of the medium, e.g, if the medium is sea water the integral is assumed to be calculated over the full depth of the ocean.' This text was added to 16 existing names:
sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_eddy_dianeutral_mixing
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_mesoscale_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_mesoscale_eddy_diffusion
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_submesoscale_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_residual_mean_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_eddy_dianeutral_mixing
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_mesoscale_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_mesoscale_eddy_diffusion
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_parameterized_submesoscale_eddy_advection
tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content_due_to_residual_mean_advection
------
Alison Pamment                                 Tel: +44 1235 778065
NCAS/Centre for Environmental Data Archival    Email: alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory     
R25, 2.22
Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.

Received on Wed Jul 04 2018 - 08:18:03 BST