[CF-metadata] Proposal for additional CF biogeochemistry attributes

From: Christiane Textor <christiane.textor>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:41:10 +0200

Dear Olivier,

As an atmospheric chemist I have three remarks on your list:

1) volume_concentration_of_oxygen_in_sea_water [vol/vol]

For atmospheric chemistry we have defined the following measures to
express a tracers' abundance:
mass_concentration [kg/m3]
mole_concentration [mole/m3]
mole_fraction [mole/mole]
moles [moles]

You suggest now to add volume concentration. I think we should avoid to
add too many expressions.
In your case, I assume that this is the common way to express this
quantity in ocean science, but if not, could you possibly use one of the
existing expressions?

2) ratio_of_nitrate_to_phosphate_in_sea_water

Does this refer name to the mass or volume or mole ratio?

3) The post fix in_sea_water
All your names refer to quantities in the ocean which is a large scale
medium, not a local one. I guess a local medium in the oean would rather
be something like in_air if a tracer is contained in air bubbles in the
ocean. I am not sure how to deal with this, but should ocean_ (or
sea_water_) not be used as a prefix with the post fix deleted?

Best regards,
Christiane
Received on Thu Apr 30 2009 - 07:41:10 BST