[CF-metadata] proposed changes to seven standard names

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 17:56:08 +0100

Dear all

In preparing the grammar for CF standard names that I describe in my last
posting, I found I wanted to propose the following modifications to existing
standard names:

snow_soot_content -> soot_content_of_surface_snow
snow_thermal_energy_content -> thermal_energy_content_of_surface_snow
snow_temperature -> temperature_in_snow
liquid_water_content_of_snow_layer -> liquid_water_content_of_surface_snow

"snow" can refer both to lying snow (a medium) and falling snow (a species).
Existing standard names generally use "surface_snow" for the former, but not
always. I propose these changes to remove the ambiguity.

water_vapor_pressure -> water_vapor_partial_pressure

This quantity is really a partial pressure, and making this change is
consistent with the use of "partial_pressure" for "carbon_dioxide" in other
names.

dissipation_in_atmosphere_boundary_layer -> kinetic_energy_dissipation_in_atmosphere_boundary_layer

This change is proposed because "dissipation" alone is vague, and it makes the
name consistent with other names that contain the phrase
"kinetic_energy_dissipation" referring to the ocean.

sea_ice_displacement -> magnitude_of_sea_ice_displacement

This change is proposed so that "sea_ice_displacement" is definitely a vector,
with components e.g. "eastward_sea_ice_displacement"; at present, it is both a
scalar and a vector.

Jonathan
Received on Mon May 03 2010 - 10:56:08 BST