[CF-metadata] Modification of some existing CF standard names for chemical constituents

From: Christiane.Textor at lsce.ipsl.fr <Christiane.Textor>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:13:12 +0100 (CET)

Dear Jonathan and Philippe,

Many thanks for your comments. Below are my responses:

-> aerosol with or without prefix dry/amient
I agree that it would be be a good idea to alias all existing _aerosol_
names to _ambient_aerosol_


-> old: optical_thickness_of_atmosphere_layer_due_to_aerosol
FROM ME
>> The other optical thickness names are built like this:
>> atmosphere_optical_thickness_due_to_X
>> For consistency, I would suggest to change the first name to
>> atmosphere_layer_optical_thickness_due_to_aerosol
>
FROM JONATHaN
> I don't agree with that because all the existing 31 names with
atmosphere_layer
> have of_atmosphere_layer or in_atmosphere_layer. However I have thought
for
> some time that we don't really need the "atmosphere layer" names. We
could
> just specify "atmosphere" and allow the bounds of the vertical
coordinate to
> indicate what layer it means. That would be a simplification.
>
Maybe we could alias this name with
atmosphere_optical_extinction_due_to_X because usually optical thickness
refers to the whole column of the atmosphere and is the vertical
integral the extinction. This way, the layer-question would vanish and
the name would be more physical.

-> surface_carbon_dioxide_mole_flux

I would definitely avoid special names, for the sake of clarity. Such a
name could still exist as an alias.

I like Philip's idea of
tendency_of_atmosphere_mole_content_of_carbon_dioxide_due_to_emission

but I am not sure if this the exactly correct as the old name
surface_carbon_dioxide_mole_flux was probably referring to the net
surface exchange, i.e. uptake and emission of CO2, but I am not sure.
This could just involve the Henry equilibrium over the ocean, but would
be much more complex over vegetation, where aspiration and respiration
would be determinant. Maybe this name could summarize all possible
processes?

tendency_of_atmosphere_mole_content_of_carbon_dioxide_due_to_net_surface_exchange

Best regards,
Christiane
Received on Mon Nov 10 2008 - 10:13:12 GMT