Kris,
If you look at the definition of cloud_area_fraction, it doesn?t imply any averaging or ratio. It is the fraction of the cell that is cloudy. It could be fine for your purposes, but if you would like to make it more clear that it is binary, I?d suggest we create a standard name of cloud_binary_mask. This would be like land_binary_mask, with a definition of
X_binary_mask has 1 where condition X is met, 0 elsewhere. 1 = cloudy, 0 = clear sky.
This also avoids adding satellite specificity to a general concept that can be used for other purposes.
Grace and peace,
Jim
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On Feb 18, 2014, at 12:42 PM, Bedka, Kristopher M. (LARC-E302)[SCIENCE SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS, INC] <kristopher.m.bedka at nasa.gov> wrote:
> We are detecting cloudy and clear sky pixels using a combination passive infrared and visible satellite imagery. The community typically calls this product a "cloud mask", i.e. byte value 0=clear sky pixel, 1=cloudy pixel. I am reviewing the CF Standard Name table and I see no name that would correspond to this type of product. I see the name "cloud_area_fraction", but the concept of "fraction" would imply that one considers several pixels in a region and computes the ratio of cloudy pixels relative to the total number of pixels in the region. This is not being done with our processing. I'd recommend something like "cloudy_satellite_pixel_detection", but am open to other suggestions
>
> Kris
>
>
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> Kristopher Bedka
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Received on Tue Feb 18 2014 - 10:49:40 GMT
