Dear Jeff et al About >water_level_with|above_reference_datum >water_level_without_reference_datum I'd like to make some suggestions:
* Since we don't have a convenient word for river, lake or sea, perhaps we should have separate names for each of them i.e. sea_surface_height, lake_surface_height and river_surface_height. All these terms are in use, often in connection with altimetry. Obviously the same duplication (or triplication) could occur with other sea-related names, but we have not had a great demand for terms related to lakes and rivers up to now. Even if we did, it would not be an unmanageable expansion of the standard name table. There are currently 284 standard names containing the word "sea". * If the datum is an arbitrary local benchmark, then I think a name of sea/lake/river_surface_height_above_reference_datum would be fine. If the datum itself needs to be located, we could have standard names for that such as sea/lake/river_surface_reference_datum_altitude. * If the datum is a quantity which could be regarded as a continuous function of location, I think it should be identified in the standard name, as in the existing sea_surface_height_above_geoid. Other standard names would thus be needed for sea_surface_height_above_mean_high_water etc. We also have an existing name of sea_surface_height_above_reference_ellipsoid. Here, the ellipsoid is not identified, but it can be with other CF metadata. I think that's OK because the geophysical intention of the reference ellipsoid is always the same, so this is in a sense a matter of measurement rather than the quantity itself. By contrast, mean high water is a different geophysical concept from the geoid. Best wishes Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata