Dear colleagues,

    I am trying to clean up some data files and make them CF compliant. But I 
am confused about the standard name that I could use for (measured) 
irradiation. There is an entry

"downwelling_spectral_radiative_flux_in_air
Downwelling radiation is radiation from above. It does not mean "net downward". 
"spectral" means per unit wavelength or as a function of wavelength; spectral 
quantities are sometimes called "monochromatic". Radiation wavelength has 
standard name radiation_wavelength. When thought of as being incident on a 
surface, a radiative flux is sometimes called "irradiance". In addition, it is 
identical with the quantity measured by a cosine-collector light-meter and 
sometimes called "vector irradiance". In accordance with common usage in 
geophysical disciplines, "flux" implies per unit area, called "flux density" in 
physics."

    This definition explicitly mentions "irradiance", so I guess I am close to 
the solution. However, the irradiance measurement data I have are not 
"spectral". I did not find a standard_name entry 
"downwelling_radiative_flux_in_air" which I would have expected to be the 
integral flux. There are only various variants of "surface_net..." or 
"surface_spectral..." fluxes. These don't help, or am I wrong here?

    Unless I am mistaken or have overlooked something obvious, I therefore 
propose to add a standard_name tabel entry:

"downwelling_radiative_flux_in_air
Downwelling radiation is radiation from above. It does not mean "net downward". 
When thought of as being incident on a surface, a radiative flux is sometimes 
called "irradiance". In addition, it is identical with the quantity measured by 
a cosine-collector light-meter and sometimes called "vector irradiance". In 
accordance with common usage in geophysical disciplines, "flux" implies per 
unit area, called "flux density" in physics. For spectrally resolved radiative 
flux or net radiative flux see downwelling_spectral_radiative_flux_in_air
or surface_net_downward_radiative_flux, respectively."


Best regards,

Martin Schultz

= Dr. Martin G. Schultz, IEK-8, Forschungszentrum Jülich  =
= D-52425 Jülich, Germany                                 =
= ph: +49 (0)2461 61 2831, fax: +49 (0)2461 61 8131       =
= email: m.schu...@fz-juelich.de                          =
= web: http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg-2/m_schultz       =

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