Perhaps the infamous aliases would be an appropriate technique? I
seem to recall that aliases are considered OK in some cases in CF, or
am I remembering that incorrectly?
I like the idea of 'distance_between_sea_floor_and_sea_surface'
myself, rather than 'thickness_of_ocean' (though the latter is elegant
too!). But in any case, it would be delightful if the two (three?)
alternatives were also present, for searchers.
John
On Feb 2, 2010, at 10:22, Jonathan Gregory wrote:
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
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