Dear Alison Re: land_ice_surface_specific_mass_balance_flux (kg m-2 s-1)
"When entering the third name into the vocabulary editor I noticed that it is very similar to an existing name land_ice_surface_specific_mass_balance (m s-1). The definition of the existing name says "Specific mass balance means the net rate at which ice is added per unit area at the land ice surface" which also sounds very similar to the definition of your proposed name. However, the units of m s-1 make me think this name perhaps refers to the thickness of ice being deposited/ablated per unit time so should it really refer to "mass balance"? Your proposed name has units of kg m-2 s-1 which seems correct for a mass flux. Please can you confirm that the two quantities are distinct? Do you think we need to modify the existing name?" Thanks for noticing this. It shows the value of the vocab editor! Yes, I propose that the existing name in m s-1 should be changed to land_ice_surface_specific_mass_balance_rate and the same for land_ice_lwe_surface_specific_mass_balance_rate The use of "rate" is consistent with other names in m s-1 such as land_ice_lwe_basal_melt_rate and will distinguish them from "flux" names. Thanks for making the other changes. Best wishes Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
