Hi Alexsandar,

My initial instinctive guess at the meaning of time_interval was that it would 
be the time interval over which a measurement was averaged (which CF has other 
means for encoding). My second guess was that it was encoding the time between 
one observation in a time series and the next by the instrument (not 
collocated), which is also not what you want.  

We have very little already in CF for guidance, that I know of.   My suggestion 
is for something like:

time_collocation_repeat_interval

We could also try the following, which sounds a bit strange.  But it is 
consistent with existing constructs, is less ambiguous, and could be extended 
more easily:

time_repeat_interval_due_to_collocation

I think I prefer this option.

Since the underlying quantity is really just time, we could also think about 
encoding this with a std_name_modifier.  But this seems an unusual case, and I 
think such a route would likely cause more confusion than it solves.

Whatever we end up with will need a description.  Could you draft that?

Best wishes,

      Philip

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Philip Cameron-Smith, [email protected], Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


> -----Original Message-----
> From: CF-metadata [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
> Aleksandar Jelenak - NOAA Affiliate
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 7:29 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] New Standard Names for Satellite Data
> 
> Hi Philip,
> 
> On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 3:34 PM, Cameron-smith, Philip
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> > it may be a good idea to make the std_name capture your concept more
> precisely.
> 
> I was thinking to propose first collocation_interval but then realized it is 
> just a
> time interval and I would need to define "collocation".
> Why do you think plain time_interval will not work?
> 
> > Are you thinking about two instruments on the same platform? different
> platforms?
> 
> Same or different platforms; ground vs satellite/airborne instruments; 
> airborne
> vs satellite instruments; any combination.
> 
> > If more than one satellite, do they need to be in the same orbit?
> 
> No.
> 
> > If one satellite, does this depend on the scanning pattern and timing, and
> whether or not one of the instruments gets turned off for a while?
> 
> In the most general case -- no.
> 
> > Is this something that will vary with every point in space and time, since
> sometimes satellite tracks cross before the orbit repeats, and/or scan 
> patterns
> can change?
> 
> If by "every point in space and time" you mean "each collocation pair"
> then -- yes.
> 
>        -Aleksandar
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