[CF-metadata] Practical Salinity units

From: alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk <alison.pamment>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 16:44:59 +0000

Dear Nan, All,

Many thanks to all those who contributed to the discussion of the proposal to change the canonical units of practical salinity from '1e-3' to '1' and amend the accompanying definition. No objections have been received to the proposed changes in the last seven days, so they are now accepted for publication in the standard name table.

The following changes to existing names will be made in the next version of the table.

sea_water_practical_salinity (canonical units: 1)
'Practical Salinity is a determination of the salinity of sea water, based on its electrical conductance. The measured conductance, corrected for temperature and pressure, is compared to the conductance of a standard potassium chloride solution, producing a value 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 conductance 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 (S_R); 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.'

change_over_time_in_sea_water_practical_salinity (canonical units: 1)
' "change_over_time_in_X" means change in a quantity X over a time-interval, which should be defined by the bounds of the time coordinate. Practical Salinity is a determination of the salinity of sea water, based on its electrical conductance. The measured conductance, corrected for temperature and pressure, is compared to the conductance of a standard potassium chloride solution, producing a value 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 conductance 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 (S_R); sea_water_cox_salinity (S_C), used for salinity observations between 1967 and 1977; and sea_water_knudsen_salinity (S_K), used for sa
linity observations between 1901 and 1966. Salinity quantities that do not match any of the precise definitions shoul d be given the more general standard name of sea_water_salinity. Reference: www.teos-10.org; Lewis, 1980 doi:10.1109/JOE.1980.1145448.'

Best wishes,
Alison

------
Alison Pamment Tel: +44 1235 778065
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis Email: alison.pamment at stfc.ac.uk
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
R25, 2.22
Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
Received on Wed Jun 24 2015 - 10:44:59 BST