[CF-metadata] standard names for variables in?'raw?engineering' units

From: Karl Taylor <taylor13>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:17:36 -0700

Dear all,

Perhaps I'm not following what's being proposed here, but I'm against
expanding the nature of the standard name from a definition of a
physical quantity, to something that includes an indication of its
potential uses (which admittedly would help in "discovery" searches). I
think we're asking too much of the standard name. I would be much more
comfortable with a proposal to develop a set of quasi-independent
components that more fully describe the data, but don't force the
information into the standard_name. One of the components would be the
"potential use" of the quantity (or a list of uses). The other
componnents would include perhaps the list I proposed in an email to
this list on 10/29/08 (i.e., quantity, medium, constituent,
specie_color, surface, process, etc.)

regards,
Karl



John Graybeal wrote:
> Jonathan,
>
> I support you in principal. But not knowing of which points you were
> thinking, can I ask you to address situations in which the observation
> has units that are not in UD_Units?
>
> I am happy to make the 'raw_units' or 'alternate_units' attribute a
> separate proposal, if you think that is the best way to proceed. It
> will definitely be necessary to support observational data, of both
> science and instrumental flavors.
>
> John
>
>
> On Mar 12, 2009, at 9:23 AM, Jonathan Gregory wrote:
>
>> Dear all
>>
>> I think we should consider some particular use-cases and try to be as
>> much like
>> standard names for geophysical parameters as we can in our treatment
>> of these
>> unprocessedd quantities. I would suggest not deciding in advance that
>> we have
>> to treat them in different ways, because it's best to minimise the
>> complexity
>> of the convention. It's often tempting to regard something as a new
>> case and
>> invent new conventions for it, but it may be easier in the end to find
>> a way to
>> express it using structures we already have.
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Jonathan
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>
>
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Received on Thu Mar 12 2009 - 11:17:36 GMT