Dear Jonathan, On Mon, 2008-08-11 at 11:26 +0100, Jonathan Gregory wrote: > Dear Ian > > > So, apart from T14, I think we're agreed. > > Splendid. On T14, I'll agree with you that it is helpful to indicate what sort > of depth it is. The fact that it is the depth of an isotherm is a main point > of > the definition of the quantity, whereas temperature on sigma levels and > temperature on pressure levels are really the same quantity, just like > temperature on a lat-lon grid and temperature on a tripolar grid are the > same quantity. >
Yes - that's what I was trying to get at. > However I'd like to suggest an alternative to ocean_isotherm_depth. What do > you think of depth_of_isosurface_of_sea_water_temperature? This is of course > not the common term but my aim is not to be obscure. I am thinking of > (a) precision; "isotherm" might mean potential or in-situ temperature, I > guess. > (b) generality. Any quantity that is defined as a function of z might be > inverted in this way. While "isotherm" is a fairly familiar word, we don't > want to have to depend on the existence of a Greek-based "iso" word in order > to name a quantity. Does "isosurface" have an obvious meaning to you? The meaning is clear, even though I hadn't seen it before. I think "contour level" and "isopleth" (which might be more familiar to meteorologists) probably have 1D connotations (wikipedia defines lots of isos as "a line through ..."). I think your suggestion is admirably clear. > It turns > out to be a word that is in common use with this meaning e.g. IDL and ncar > graphics both use the term, and it's in wikipedia. > > If this is too user-unfriendly I'll settle for ocean_isotherm_depth and if we > have later problems we can sort it out with aliases. > No, that's fine - except that in NEMO it's defined in terms of theta, not in-situ temp, so we want T14 depth_of_isosurface_of_sea_water_potential_temperature (m) (This sets an obvious precedent if someone wants to propose a standard name based on in-situ T later.) Is that OK? Thanks, Ian. > Cheers > > Jonathan -- Ian Culverwell B-2-81 Ocean and Sea Ice Modelling Met Office FitzRoy Road Exeter Devon EX1 3PB United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1392 884017 Fax: +44 (0)1392 885861 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk Met Office climate change predictions can now be viewed on Google Earth http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/google/ _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
