Dear Martin, Heinke and Jonathan,
Martin wrote:
> > > 'water_vapor_mixing_ratio'
> > > water vapor mixing ratio of a parcel of moist air is the ratio of
> the
> > > mass of water vapor to the mass of dry air.
> > I think there is agreement that the existing standard name
> humidity_mixing_ratio has the right
> > definition, but that water_vapor_mixing_ratio would be more
> self-explanatory. Therefore I will
> > add the name water_vapor_mixing_ratio and make humidity_mixing_ratio
> into an alias.
>
> Now I am really puzzled! For all chemical constituents we went a
> long way to make the distinction between
> mass_fraction_of_ and mole_fraction_of_ (see my mail to Philip
of
> this morning)
>
> Why shouldn't this be the case for water vapour, which can also be
> seen as a chemical constituent???
>
> The "mixing_ratio" label doesn't allow to infer the canonical units.
>
> So, my suggestion would be
>
> mass_fraction_of_water_vapour_in_air
>
> and if you insist on humidity, then we would need an alias to
>
> mass_fraction_of_humidity_in_air
This raises a couple of points. Firstly, as Jonathan said,
> I think the mass fraction of water vapor in air would be the ratio of
mass of water vapour
> to mass of moist air. That's not quite the same. Would you agree?
I think Jonathan is correct because, unless stated otherwise, 'air'
would be assumed to be moist.
The name that currently exists in the table for this quantity is
humidity_mixing_ratio, but I think that we are all agreed to use the
term 'water_vapour' rather than 'humidity'. This would seem to leave us
with two possible choices for this name: either
'water_vapour_mixing_ratio'
which was agreed between Jonathan and Heinke, or
'mass_fraction_of_water_vapour_in_dry_air'
which would be more consistent with treating water vapour as a chemical
constituent, as well as a physical one. I think that Martin's point that
water vapour can be regarded as a chemical constituent is a very fair
one. 'Mixing ratio' is not a term that is widely used in standard names
so changing this one name to 'mass_fraction' will not make it
inconsistent with any other group of names. Personally, I could live
with either solution so I am happy to go with the majority view.
Best wishes,
Alison
==> Please note new email address: alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk <==
------
J Alison Pamment Tel: +44 1235 778065
NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre Fax: +44 1235 446314
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Email: alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk
Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
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Received on Tue Nov 04 2008 - 03:34:04 GMT
