[CF-metadata] standard names for sea ice with qualifier

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 15:52:55 +0100

Dear Knut

You have pointed out an ambiguity in our current use of standard names. In
fact we have had previous email discussions about this, but have not changed
the standard to clarify the situation, partly because we haven't had an agreed
process for deciding changes! I will soon repropose a change that was discussed
last year. The main idea is to move the specification of the area of averaging
into cell_methods, rather than specify it in the standard name. Thus, sea-ice
thickness averaged over the grid-box or over the sea-ice area would have the
same standard name, and would be distinguished by cell_methods. This feels
right to me because the distinction relates to the representation of subgrid
variation, and that is the purpose of cell_methods. We would not use "where"
in the standard name for this purpose. What do you think?

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Wed Jul 04 2007 - 08:52:55 BST