Dear John There is a large backlog of standard name proposals at present, which Alison is working through.
>From an inexpert point of view, I believed that pH always measured hydrogen ion concentration, what you call "free scale". It's interesting to learn that it's more complicated than that. Nonetheless, it might be useful to have a standard name of sea_water_pH, for cases where users do not wish to be precise, for instance for model data that does not represent the complex chemistry of sea water, so that these distinctions cannot be drawn. For the more specific applications, I would propose that we introduce names as they are required, as usual. You require "total scale" at present. I have a difficulty with "free scale", "total scale" and "seawater scale", that these terms, while no doubt well-known to experts, do not convey information to non-experts about what the distinction is. I would suggest that it would be more helpful to have names that indicate that the pH measures H+ only, H+ and HSO4-, or H+ HSO4- and HF, respectively, as your definitions indicate. Best wishes Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
