[CF-metadata] proposed changes to various standard names

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 09:31:45 +0100

Dear all

In preparing the grammar for CF standard names for version 13 of the table,
I made proposals to modify various existing standard names. These proposals
apply to version 14 as well, and I repeat them below. In addition, version 14
raises some new issues. These are questions that I didn't think of when we
were working on the proposed standard names; adding new phrases to the lexicon
made them more obvious. I think that shows a benefit of having a lexicon.
(But maybe we did discuss them, and I've forgotten! If so, apologies.)

* We have introduced the phrase sinking_mole_flux. Could that be
downwelling_mole_flux instead? I think "sinking" and "downwelling" mean the
same thing, and "downwelling" was already in the lexicon.

* What's the difference between inorganic_phosphorus and inorganic_phosphate,
and likewise inorganic_silicon and inorganic_silicate?

* For elemental_nitrogen, could we say molecular_nitrogen, which would be
consistent with molecular_hydrogen and molecular_oxygen?

* What's the difference between sulfate_dry_aerosol and sulfur_dry_aerosol?

* What's the difference between large_scale and stratiform?

* We have an existing name of surface_carbon_dioxide_mole_flux, whose sign
convention is not clear. Could we change this to
surface_up|downward_mole_flux_of_carbon_dioxide
to be consistent with some newly introduced names?

Proposals already made (on version 13, still applicable to version 14):

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.

Cheers

Jonathan
Received on Thu May 13 2010 - 02:31:45 BST