Alison,
All these changes sound excellent.
I have a few suggestions for the area_type info. Well, more like
questions.
An area_type that I imagine being useful within a year or two, if not
within months, is the benthic floor (i.e., land under the sea). And
by analog: land under a lake, or the more general
water_covered_ground. I'm not recommending those changes now, but they
raise the following question: Is 'land' is intended to be all-
encompassing in this regard? Definitions would help make this clear.
As a general observation, discussing terms without associated
definitions can lead to confusion on all parts.
I don't see how all_standard_names makes sense as an area_type.
If lake_ice_or_sea_ice excludes icebergs, does sea_ice? This is
counterintuitive to a lay person, admittedly not the target audience.
(Also note, this is where the relation between terms is useful
information to have -- somewhere in my assumed hierarchy
floating_ice
lake_ice_or_sea_ice
sea_ice
there is a discrepancy, perhaps intentional. Suggest the discontinuity
be made explicit in the definition (i..e, explain why
lake_ice_or_sea_ice excludes icebergs, while floating_ice does not;
and address whether sea_ice includes icebergs. The definition is
where people will look to understand the relationships.
I assume the absence of lake_ice is deliberate. (Just a thought:
Sometimes completeness is helpful for clarity, especially when there
are no definitions, even though there may not be any immediate use for
the term. Otherwise it makes some of us wonder why something *wasn't*
included.)
John
On Dec 4, 2008, at 6:03 AM, Pamment, JA (Alison) wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Velimir and I have been working on creating the new table of
> standardized area_type strings as agreed under trac ticket 17. The
> table lists the values permitted in variables with a standard_name of
> area_type. To view version 1 of the table please go to
> http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-standard-names/area-type-table/cur
> rent/area-type-table. Clicking on the individual table entries will
> reveal explanatory text, although currently there is only help
> available
> for the two new floating_ice strings. Please let us know if you have
> any comments about the format of the table.
>
> For ease of reference, there is also now a link from the area_type
> description text in the html version of the standard_name table to the
> new area_type table.
>
> At the top of the standard name table a link has been created to the
> standard name Guidelines document. This has been done with the
> intention of giving greater prominence on the website to the existence
> of the Guidelines.
>
> The html copy of the standard name table has been rebuilt to add the
> new
> links, but this in no way affects the contents of the table which
> remains at version 11. There are no changes to the xml version of the
> table.
>
> Velimir has converted the standard name Guidelines document to the
> docbook format (similar to the conventions document) and this
> hopefully
> will make it more navigable. In addition, we have introduced version
> numbering of the Guidelines. This is in response to the fact that
> there
> has been a number of recent changes to the document and it looks
> likely
> that there will be more in the future. The Guidelines are currently
> at
> version 1 and this number will be incremented each time a change is
> made.
>
> If you have any comments regarding any of the above, please send
> them to
> the list.
>
> 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.
>
> --
> Scanned by iCritical.
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John
--------------
John Graybeal <mailto:graybeal at mbari.org> -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project:
http://marinemetadata.org
Received on Thu Dec 04 2008 - 09:27:52 GMT
