[CF-metadata] Standard names for altimeter data

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:13:21 +0100

Dear Karl

On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 09:03:36AM -0700, Karl Taylor wrote:
> I've not carefully followed all of the recent standard name discussion,
> but I thought the idea was to identify the physical quantity, not how
> it was measured or estimated

That is the general idea, but geostrophic velocity is a different quantity
from velocity, not a (poor) estimate of velocity. It is quite likely you
would want to have both at once and would expect them to be different.

I think the approximation of using MSL for the geoid, although it is in
some sense a method, on balance again defines a different quantity. I feel
this is like the distinction between mixed layer defined by a temperature
criterion, a density criterion, or a mixing scheme; all these have different
standard names, because they might all be calculated from the same dataset
and need to be distinguished. They might each be compared with the
corresponding quantities from a different dataset. These are the basic criteria
for defining distinct standard names.

On the other hand, surface temperature in an AOGCM and an EBM are not both
going to be calculated from the same dataset, so don't need to be distinct.
On the contrary, they are quantities which claim to be comparable, so they
ought to have the same stdname in AOGCM and EBM datasets.

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Fri Aug 25 2006 - 10:13:21 BST