Dear Martin

>    if this is the direction to take, then we will need several "expressed_as" 
> standard_names for atmospheric chemistry. Typical example: volatile organic 
> compounds are often "expressed as" mass mixing ratio based on either their 
> molecular mass or in "grams C" which counts only the mass of the C atoms 
> (because this is what counts in the sense that it ultimately produces CO2 at 
> the end of the reaction chain). Hence, one would need things like
> "mass_mixing_ratio_of_ethane_in_air_expressed_as_carbon_mass" and many 
> similar ones.

Yes, indeed, we have already started down this direction e.g. there is an
existing standard name
  mass_fraction_of_brox_expressed_as_bromine_in_air

> I do sympathize with people who prefer to read "nmol mol-1" on a plot rather 
> than "1" (or "1.e-9" in this case).

Since nmol mol-1 is equal to 1e-9, there is no problem with using it as units
in a CF file. It is udunits-compliant. It could even be stated as the
canonical unit in the standard name table.

Best wishes

Jonathan
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