Dear Randy > We are planning on using flags with numeric values as you suggest Your input > is helpful in that is is deemed unnecessary to specifically identify values > in the definition as is the case with the binary_masks, This provides > additional flexibility to data producers.
Yes, exactly. > standard_name: cloud_phase_category > > definition: > > A numeric value indicating one of the following categories: clear; liquid > water; super-cooled liquid water; mixed phase; ice, and; unknown. But it would be a string-valued quantity in principle, although netCDF does not allow string-valued data variables. I think the definition should say The variable is a string, taking one of the following values to indicate cloud phase category: clear_sky, liquid_water, super_cooled_liquid_water, mixed_phase, ice, unknown. For a data variable it is encoded as an integer using flag_values and flag_meanings. Comments on the values: * clear_sky is a phrase already used in standard names. Could you use it here for consistency? * Is super_cooled_liquid_water a subset of liquid_water? If not, could you give an extra adjective to liquid_water to clarify this? Cheers Jonathan _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
