[CF-metadata] new standard names for surface aerosol optical properties

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:35:30 +0000

Dear Markus and Philip

> > 6) We currently don't have any std_names with _due_to_aerosol. They
> > all specify either _ambient_ or _dry_.
> >
> > MF: The reason why I didn't write "ambient" or "dry" here is that some
> > data is neither nor. As written above, the sample is usually fed into a
> > lab container (implicit warming) and dried (by diffusion dryer). Some
> > sites, e.g. (sub)-tropical ones in summer, don't manage to dry the
> > sample to < 40% RH. For these sites, the humidity state needs to be
> > given in the file since it varies (I will correct the corresponding
> > sentence in the definition), but it is neither dry nor ambient.

> [PJC] This is a challenge because it puts two CF goals in conflict, ie accurately describing a variable and enabling quantities from different instruments and models to intercompare. To put it another way, the problem is that any data put into the std_name you suggest will be hard to use without additional information, since there is no way to know whether like quantities are being compared. Is it normal to have observation temperature and humidity data along with the aerosol measurements?

I agree that this could make the quantity a less useful description. If it
is necessary to have this vaguer quantity, I would suggest saying
ambient_or_dry_aerosol, just to be explicit that it is vague!

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Thu Mar 15 2012 - 12:35:30 GMT