[CF-metadata] new standard name: land_surface_skin_temperature

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:22:47 +0100

Dear Jonathan

I defer to Roy about the various sea water temperature names.

It is physically meaningful to have a temperature which doesn't relate to any
material layer. If there is no matter associated with it, it must have zero
heat capacity, so the temperature is determined by requiring an exact balance
of heat fluxes. For this to be possible, the heat fluxes concerned must depend
on the temperature, which of course they generally do. Obviously this is an
idealisation, but a surface interface temperature of this kind really can
exist in a model, although it's not an observational quantity. A model can
obtain such a temperature by solving simultaneously for the heat fluxes that
are balanced at the interface.

Best wishes

Jonathan G
Received on Fri Jun 14 2013 - 11:22:47 BST