Dear all In connection with the radiative flux from the sun, the question has come up of whether we should use the phrase flux_density for a flux per unit area in all the standard names which currently have the word "flux". This would be correct in physical terminology, but years ago we chose to use "flux" because it's the normal terminology in many geosciences. There are more than 200 standard names of "flux" - radiative fluxes, mass fluxes and mole fluxes. In some of them I don't think "flux density" is ever used e.g. I have never heard of an "ocean flux density adjustment", and Google finds one hit for "snowfall flux density". However we could rename them all and establish aliases to the present names, if that would be an advantage for users of standard names. Should this be done?
Cheers Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
