Dear Jeff and Roy I agree, it is arbitrary whether it is called sea_floor_depth_below_sea_surface or sea_surface_height_above_sea_floor and I agree with Roy that consistency with existing names would suggest the former.
It's interesting that this kind of ambiguity hasn't arisen before. What you want to name is the distance between two named surfaces. In other names, we call the vertical distance between two surfaces a "thickness" e.g. ocean_mixed_layer_thickness. That doesn't have an associated "direction" (upward or downward) and so avoids this problem. By that analogy the quantity you want to name might be called thickness_of_ocean but I suspect most people would find that less obvious. What we are aiming at principally is clarity. The procedure for adding names is that Alison Pamment, the manager of standard names, will consider them and add them. She is dealing with CMIP5 names at present, I believe, so it might be a while before she gets to this. If no-one else objects soon or makes an alternative proposal, I'd suggest you use this name on the assumption that it will be added to the stdname table in due course. Best wishes Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
