Dear all I agree with Roy in his remark that "the existing salinity Standard Name is a much broader term than the TEOS-10 recommendations". In some datasets, it may not be well-defined precisely which "kind" of salinity we have. This is particularly the case for model datasets, since most ocean models used for climate are not capable of distinguishing owing to the approximations they make. (I note that CF and the standard name table began as a convention for GCMs, and later expanded to accommodate observations.) We cannot redefine the existing standard name because of the existing datasets and because it is useful to have a "generic" name anyway.
However it is fine both to keep this existing generic name and to define some new ones to make the distinction in new obs and model datasets where it is appropriate, as proposed by Paul and Trevor. It is usual in CF to have a choice of precision for different applications. On Paul's proposals, I have a couple of comments: sea_water_preformed_salinity Definition: Preformed Salinity is a salinity variable that is designed to be as conservative as possible, by removing the estimated biogeochemical influences on the seawater composition from other forms of salinity. I assume this is a newly introduced term. I would say that it would be good to be more informative. "Preformed" does not tell me what it is - it doesn't suggest anything in particular to me as a non-expert. CF standard names do not have to be the term in common use if we could be more self-explanatory. Perhaps we could be more self-explanatory in this term with a phrase such as assuming_no_biogeochemical_influence. But actually, I am unsure what that means - could you explain a bit further? How can salinity not be influenced by geochemistry, in particular? Please excuse my ignorance. sea_water_potential_enthalpy Since this quantity is in J kg-1, I suggest that it should contain the word "specific". Omitting this might imply that it was an extensive quantity e.g. an ocean integral. By analogy with the existing standard name specific_kinetic_energy_of_sea_water it might be best phrased as specific_potential_enthalpy_of_sea_water The salinity quantities are by definition intensive and so "specific" is not required. Best wishes Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata