Dear Jim I agree that for some purposes you want a field of integers that identifies the area types, rather than a binary mask. I think this can be achieved by using the existing standard_name of area_type. This standard_name indicates a string- valued data variable, but it can be encoded as self-describing integers with flag_values and flag_meanings, as you say.
Best wishes Jonathan ----- Forwarded message from Jim Biard <jbi...@cicsnc.org> ----- > Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:33:54 -0400 > From: Jim Biard <jbi...@cicsnc.org> > To: cf-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu > Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard name for land/sea mask > User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.12; rv:52.0) > Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.2.1 > > Hi. > > Given the prior existence of land_binary_mask, Elodie's request for > sea_binary_mask makes sense. Even given my request below, if Elodie > needs this standard name, I endorse it's addition. I don't want to > bog her down. > > I'd like to suggest that we do something slightly more flexible and > create the standard name discrete_mask, which could handle both > these cases. It could also handle numerous other use cases that > generally go without a standard name right now. The definition could > be something like below. > > discrete_mask: A variable with the standard name discrete_mask is > used to indicate a finite set of discrete, related conditions that > hold across the dimensional range of the variable. These conditions > are marked by integer values, each of which indicates a specific > condition. The particular conditions being indicated are defined > using flag_values and flag_meanings attributes associated with the > variable. A single element of the variable can indicate only one > condition - bit field combinations are not allowed. > > > I'm thinking this way because in the particular domain Elodie is > referring to, some files have trinary masks, sea = 0, coast = 1, > land = 2, different ones define the numbers used to indicate the > different conditions, some cover more cases (fresh water, for > example), etc. > > I do, on one level, appreciate that it can be nice to see the > standard name on a variable and not need to look further to > understand how the contents are implemented, but I don't think it > buys us near as much as we like to think. > > Grace and peace, > > Jim > > On 7/11/17 3:55 AM, Elodie Fernandez wrote: > >Dear all, > > > >I would like to suggest the addition of a new standard_name to > >describe land-sea masks. A standard_name already exists: > >land_binary_mask ( > >X_binary_mask has 1 where condition X is met, 0 elsewhere. 1 = > >land, 0 = sea.). But in the ocean modelling community, we have > >already existing files describing those masks, but from an "ocean > >point of view", so 1 is for sea and 0 is for land points. > >So I would like to request the addition of the standard_name > >"*sea_binary**_mask*", > >with definition "X_binary_mask has 1 where condition X is met, 0 > >elsewhere. 1 = sea, 0 = land" and unit "1". > > > >Best regards, > >Elodie > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >CF-metadata mailing list > >CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu > >http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata > > -- > CICS-NC <http://www.cicsnc.org/> Visit us on > Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/cicsnc> *Jim Biard* > *Research Scholar* > Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites NC <http://cicsnc.org/> > North Carolina State University <http://ncsu.edu/> > NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information <http://ncdc.noaa.gov/> > /formerly NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center/ > 151 Patton Ave, Asheville, NC 28801 > e: jbi...@cicsnc.org <mailto:jbi...@cicsnc.org> > o: +1 828 271 4900 > > /Connect with us on Facebook for climate > <https://www.facebook.com/NOAANCEIclimate> and ocean and geophysics > <https://www.facebook.com/NOAANCEIoceangeo> information, and follow > us on Twitter at @NOAANCEIclimate > <https://twitter.com/NOAANCEIclimate> and @NOAANCEIocngeo > <https://twitter.com/NOAANCEIocngeo>. / > > > _______________________________________________ > CF-metadata mailing list > CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu > http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata ----- End forwarded message ----- _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
