Dear Craig,
There are actually quite a number of standard names in the table that do
not have definitions attached, for example, air_pressure is not defined
either. In many cases I think that this was a conscious decision when
the table was first created - Section 3.3 of the Conventions document
says "description - The description is meant to clarify the qualifiers
of the fundamental quantities such as which surface a quantity is
defined on or what the flux sign conventions are. We don"t attempt to
provide precise definitions of fundumental physical quantities (e.g.,
temperature) which may be found in the literature."
However, from time to time I do add definitions to some of the older
names if it becomes necessary. I remember our discussion of SST
quantities and definitions for GHRSST and will check back regarding the
definition of sea_water_temperature. As that was a pre-existing name I
may have neglected to add the definition at the time of updating the
table - my apologies if that was the case.
Best wishes,
Alison
------
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
<mailto:J.A.Pamment at rl.ac.uk>
Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
From: cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu
[mailto:cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu] On Behalf Of
craig.donlon at gmail.com
Sent: 09 June 2009 12:35
To: CF Metadata
Subject: [CF-metadata] sea_water_temperature
Dear all:
Several people have been looking at the standard name table for CF-1.4
(
http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-standard-names/standard-name-tabl
e/11/standard-name-table) and in particular, noted that there is no
description for the varaible sea_water_termperature. Why is this?
The following definitions were agreed when GHRSST negotiated variaous
sea surface temperatures for CF-1.3:
*CF: sea_water_temperature
-The general term, "bulk" sea surface temperature, has the standard name
sea_surface_temperature with no associated vertical coordinate axis. The
temperature of sea water at a particular depth (other than the
foundation level) should be reported using the standard name
sea_water_temperature and, wherever possible, supplying a vertical
coordinate axis or scalar coordinate variable.
*
*GHRSST: SSTdepth or SSTZ (e.g.SST1.5m)
-is the terminology adopted by GHRSST to represent an in situ
measurement near the surface of the ocean that is typically reported
simply as SST or "bulk" SST. For example SST6m would refer to an SST
measurement made at a depth of 6m. Without a clear statement of the
precise depth at which the SST measurement was made, and the
circumstances surrounding the measurement, such a sample lacks the
information needed for comparison with, or validation of
satellite-derived estimates of SST using other data sources. The
terminology has been introduced to encourage the reporting of depth (z)
along with the temperature.
Which text should appear in the CF-1.4 standard name table?
Take care and thanks
Craig
--
Dr Craig Donlon
Principal Scientist for Ocean and Ice (EOP-SME)
ESA/ESTEC (EOP-SME)
Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ
Noordwijk The Netherlands
t: +31 (0)715 653687
f: +31 (0)715 655675
m:+31 0643 066162
Skype ID:crazit
altE-mail: craig.donlon at gmail.com
--
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