Dear All,

At BADC we are preparing to archive some data generated by a group at Oxford 
University who are working on a climate model of the Martian atmosphere.  The 
data will be archived as CF-compliant netCDF files. Many of the model variables 
are the same as those used in earth simulations, e.g., air temperature, u and v 
wind components, surface atmospheric pressure, and for all these we will use 
existing standard names.  However, there are a small number of variables for 
which there are no existing standard names.  Therefore, we would like to 
propose the following new names:

carbon_dioxide_ice_amount; kg m-2
This is the mass per unit area of frozen carbon dioxide on the Martian surface.

atmosphere_optical_thickness_due_to_dust_dry_aerosol; 1
This follows the pattern of the existing name 
atmosphere_optical_thickness_due_to_dust_ambient_aerosol and is defined in an 
analogous way.

aerocentric_longitude; degree
'Aerocentric longitude' is a widely used term within the Mars modelling 
community and indicates the season within the Martian year according to the 
sun's apparent motion relative to the planet's equator. Zero degrees is defined 
as the northern hemisphere vernal equinox, i.e.,  the ascending node of the 
apparent seasonal motion of the Sun on the planet's equator 
[http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html]. Thus 90, 180 and 270 
degrees indicate, respectively, the summer solstice, autumnal equinox and 
winter solstice.

We would welcome comments on these proposals.

Best wishes,
Alison

------
Alison Pamment                          Tel: +44 1235 778065
NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre    Fax: +44 1235 446314
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory     Email: [email protected]
R25, 2.22
Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.



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