[CF-metadata] Proposal for additional CF biogeochemistry attributes

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 08:15:31 +0100

Dear Philip and Bruce

> In the atmosphere CF has used 'mole_fraction_' to designate mole/mole
> quantities.
>
> Hence, perhaps we should use
> MOLE_FRACTION_of_nitrate_to_phosphate_in_sea_water here?
>
> The counter argument is that, in every existing CF std name I could find,
> mol_fraction_ is always the mole ratio of the species to air.

> Hence, I think the question boils down to: Do we want to create a new
> prefix (ie 'mole_ratio_') for ratios of species to species (as opposed to
> the ratio of species to medium)?

Yes, I think that would be a good choice, for instance a pattern
  mole_ratio_of_X_to_Y_in_sea_water
or perhaps
  mole_mixing_ratio_of_X_to_Y_in_sea_water
by analogy to four existing standard names that use the phrase mixing_ratio.

> (They also seem to prefer expressing oxygen concentration in
> ml/l, by the way.)

One of these four is the existing standard name
  volume_mixing_ratio_of_oxygen_at_stp_in_sea_water
which I think is just what you want i.e. the ratio of the volume of oxygen gas
at STP to the volume of water it is dissolved in.

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Wed May 13 2009 - 01:15:31 BST