[CF-metadata] Missing standardnames for our our ocean model MPI-OM

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:03:06 +0100

Dear Martina

> > > 1. richardson_number; 1
> >
> > I'd suggest this should be richardson_number_in_sea_water since it could
> > also be defined in air.
>
> Do we really need the additional "_in_sea_water"? The definition of the
> richardson_number is the same in atmosphere and ocean.

Yes, that's true, but it is useful to identify which one you mean. You could
have a dataset with both of them in it, and the standard name is the first
place to look (in the CF convention) to distinguish quantities. Of course you
could use other metadata, such the vertical coordinate, but that is much less
obvious and convenient. For the same reason, we have sea_water_temperature and
air_temperature, rather than just temperature.

> > Could you describe
> > what you mean by "due to wind" in the case of diffusivity?
>
> "due_to_wind" means induced by winds on the surface.

Do you mean wind-driven mixing (in the mixed layer) is represented by a
diffusion scheme, and you have other diffusion schemes (with different
diffusivities) for interior mixing resulting from other kinds of turbulence?

> > > 3. water_flux_in_ocean_without_flux_correction; m s-1 [kg m-2 s-1]
> >
> > It might be clearer to say what *is* included rather than what is *not*
> > included. What do you include in this water flux?
>
> We include precipitation, evaporation, and runoff in this quantity. And in
> water_flux_in_ocean, which is another output quantity, the restoring is
> already included as well. If we explicitely mention precipitation,
> evaporation, and runoff (potentially sea_ice, too) we end up with a very long
> name. To exclude one by reference to water_flux_in_ocean the standard name
> remains shorter.

OK - I can't think of anything better! It's "into_ocean", not "in_ocean", by
the way. I think we agree the units are kg m-2 s-1 for the stdname table
(numerically equal to mm s-1).

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Tue Jun 17 2008 - 10:03:06 BST