I agree too much information is less helpful than the right amount of information, and saying what something *is* should come before saying what it is not. So from the first two versions I suggest the following, which also changes minor things about the standard included phrasing at the end (rephrases slightly, puts the most current alternatives first, and uses semi-colons to bracket the comma-embedded items in the list):
Practical Salinity is a measure of salinity performed on a relative scale calibrated against a standard potassium chloride solution, as defined on the Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 (PSS-78). This name should not be used to describe salinity observations made before 1978, or ones not based on conductivity measurements. Conversion of Practical Salinity to other precisely defined salinity measures should use the appropriate formulas specified by TEOS-10. Other standard names for precisely defined salinity quantities are sea_water_absolute_salinity (S_A); sea_water_preformed_salinity (S_*), sea_water_reference_salinity; sea_water_cox_salinity (S_C), used for salinity observations between 1967 and 1977; and sea_water_knudsen_salinity (S_K), used for salinity observations between 1901 and 1966. Salinity quantities that do not match any of the precise definitions should be given the more general standard name of sea_water_salinity. Reference: www.teos-10.org; Lewis, 1980 doi:10.1109/JOE.1980.1145448.
I won't be hurt if this is deemed to much micro-editing.
John
On Jun 8, 2015, at 09:39, Chris Barker <chris.barker at noaa.gov> wrote:
> Sorry all, I just posted a note that was out of date -- this is looking good.
>
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 8:51 AM, <alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> ?Practical Salinity is defined on the Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 (PSS-78) and is calculated from the electrical conductivity of sea water (as well as temperature and pressure). Practical Salinity is not a direct measure of salt concentration, rather, it is a relative scale calibrated against a standard potassium chloride solution containing 32.4356 g kg-1 of KCl whose conductivity is measured at 15 degrees Celsius. Conversion of Practical Salinity to other precisely defined salinity measures should be performed by application of the appropriate formulas specified by TEOS-10. This name should not be used to describe salinity observations made before 1978, or ones not based on conductivity measurements. There are also standard names for the precisely defined salinity quantities sea_water_knudsen_salinity (S_K), used for salinity observations between 1901 and 1966, sea_water_cox_salinity (S_C), used for salinity observations between 1967 and 1977, sea_water_absolute_salinity (S_A), sea_water_preformed
_salinity (S_*), and sea_water_reference_salinity. Salinity quantities that do not match any of the precise definitions should be given the more general standard name of sea_water_salinity. Reference:www.teos-10.org; Lewis, 1980 doi:10.1109/JOE.1980.1145448.?
>
>
>
> This all looks good to me, though does seem like way too much information for a standards doc. IT seems to be that providing a reference for folks that may no know what the heck PSU is is enough, something like:
>
> """
> Practical Salinity is defined on the Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 (PSS-78). This name should not be used to describe salinity observations made before 1978, or ones not based on conductivity measurements. There are also standard names for the precisely defined salinity quantities sea_water_knudsen_salinity (S_K), used for salinity observations between 1901 and 1966, sea_water_cox_salinity (S_C), used for salinity observations between 1967 and 1977, sea_water_absolute_salinity (S_A), sea_water_preformed_salinity (S_*), and sea_water_reference_salinity. Salinity quantities that do not match any of the precise definitions should be given the more general standard name of sea_water_salinity. Reference:www.teos-10.org; Lewis, 1980 doi:10.1109/JOE.1980.1145448.
> """
>
> But I don't suppose there is much harm in the extra verbosity.
>
> Thanks everyone for all this attention to detail!
>
> -Chris
>
>
>
> --
>
> Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
> Oceanographer
>
> Emergency Response Division
> NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice
> 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
> Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception
>
> Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
> _______________________________________________
> CF-metadata mailing list
> CF-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
> http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/attachments/20150608/66bb4c8b/attachment.html>
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 12:18:00 BST
