The standard names of the coordinate variables, lat & long,
should somehow reflect that these observations are not
located on earth. Putting this into "some other metadata"
seems cavalier to me.
I'd like to see the word 'earth' inserted into the definitions of
lat & long. In the same way the time word identifies data from
the distant past or future - more explicitly than any global
attributes do - this would make it clear if data is from some
planet other than earth.
- Nan
On 1/26/11 7:03 AM, Jonathan Gregory wrote:
> Dear Alison
> ...
> With regard to John's question, I think there is no problem for using the same
> standard names for Earth and Mars quantities if they refer to the same physical
> quantities, just like we can use the same standard names for different future
> scenarios for the Earth, or past geological periods. The Earth in the Cambrian
> was not the same planet as the Earth today regarding all its climate and
> geophysical circumstances (although not as different as Mars). The fact that
> it is Mars is presumably made clear in some other metadata, which could be
> standardised if necessary. The Earth as simulated by various climate models is
> also not the same Earth as the one we live on - sometimes quite bizarrely
> different - and these models are distinguished informally by global attributes.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Jonathan
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> CF-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
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>
--
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* Nan Galbraith (508) 289-2444 *
* Upper Ocean Processes Group Mail Stop 29 *
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Received on Wed Jan 26 2011 - 07:18:38 GMT
