Many thanks Alison,

I'm perfectly happy with your suggested change of 'average' to 'mean' in the 
proposed height Standard Names.

Cheers, Roy.

From: CF-metadata [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
[email protected]
Sent: 22 June 2016 14:32
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Waves

Dear Roy, Elodie, Nan, Jonathan, Chris, et al,

Many thanks to Elodie for her original wave name proposals, to Roy for doing so 
much work on designing a systematic approach to CF wave names and to all those 
who have worked to improve these proposals on and off the list. My apologies 
for taking a while to respond to this discussion.

I think it is useful to continue Roy’s approach of breaking the original set of 
proposals into three groups, so here I will address just the height names. I 
will address the other sets of proposals separately.

I note the discussion around the use of mean, maximum and minimum in the 
standard name, rather than our more usual approach of placing such information 
in the cell_methods attribute. We do already have eleven existing names that 
refer to “wave_mean_period”. I looked back at the original discussion of these 
names in 2006 in which it was agreed to use “mean” in the name because wave 
quantities can be calculated in many and diverse ways from the power spectrum 
and it is not useful to come up with separate cell_methods for them all.  I 
think Roy made a similar point earlier on in this discussion. In fact, I don’t 
think that putting the quantities in  cell_methods would greatly reduce the 
number of new names required in this instance. Also, I’m strongly in favour of 
Roy’s approach of adopting as far as possible a consistent convention for all 
wave standard names so I support the use of mean, maximum and minimum in these 
proposals for consistency with the existing names.

I note the general point made by Nan about the ordering of sentences in the 
definitions of new wave names 
(http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/2016/058843.html). I’m 
broadly supportive of adopting this approach as we go along (so this doesn’t 
mean we need to review all existing wave name definitions during the current 
discussion).  I think the definitions of the wave height proposals are in any 
case consistent with Nan’s approach.

For the two mean_height names, I suggest a minor change in which we replace the 
word “average” in the definitions with the word “mean” for clarity and 
consistency with the names themselves, otherwise they look fine. These two 
names would therefore be as follows:
sea_surface_wave_mean_height (m)
‘Wave height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave trough to the 
following wave crest. The mean wave height is the mean trough to crest distance 
measured during the observation period.’
sea_surface_wave_mean_height_of_highest_tenth (m)
‘Wave height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave trough to the 
following wave crest. The height of the highest tenth is defined as the mean of 
the highest ten per cent of trough to crest distances measured during the 
observation period.’
If Roy and Elodie are happy with this small change, then these names can be 
accepted for publication.

The remaining height names look fine and are accepted for publication in the 
standard name table:

sea_surface_wave_significant_height (m) (Modification to definition of existing 
name)
‘Significant wave height is a statistic computed from wave measurements and 
corresponds to the average height of the highest one third of the waves, where 
the height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave trough to the 
following wave crest.’

sea_surface_wind_wave_significant_height (m) (Modification to definition of 
existing name)
‘Wind waves are waves on the ocean surface and are the high frequency portion 
of a bimodal wave frequency spectrum. Significant wave height is a statistic 
computed from wave measurements and corresponds to the average height of the 
highest one third of the waves, where the height is defined as the vertical 
distance from a wave trough to the following wave crest.’

sea_surface_swell_wave_significant_height (m) (Modification to definition of 
existing name)
‘Swell waves are waves on the ocean surface and are the low frequency portion 
of a bimodal wave frequency spectrum. Significant wave height is a statistic 
computed from wave measurements and corresponds to the average height of the 
highest one third of the waves, where the height is defined as the vertical 
distance from a wave trough to the following wave crest.’

sea_surface_primary_swell_wave_significant_height (m)
‘Swell waves are waves on the ocean surface and are the low frequency portion 
of a bimodal wave frequency spectrum. The primary swell wave is the most 
energetic swell wave. Significant wave height is a statistic computed from wave 
measurements and corresponds to the average height of the highest one third of 
the waves, where the height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave 
trough to the following wave crest.’

sea_surface_secondary_swell_wave_significant_height (m)
‘Swell waves are waves on the ocean surface and are the low frequency portion 
of a bimodal wave frequency spectrum. The secondary swell wave is the second 
most energetic wave in the low frequency portion of a bimodal wave frequency 
spectrum. Significant wave height is a statistic computed from wave 
measurements and corresponds to the average height of the highest one third of 
the waves, where the height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave 
trough to the following wave crest.’

sea_surface_wave_maximum_height (m)
‘Wave height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave trough to the 
following wave crest. The maximum wave height is the greatest trough to crest 
distance measured during the observation period.’

sea_surface_wave_maximum_crest_height (m)
‘The crest is the highest point of a wave. Crest height is the vertical 
distance between the crest and the calm sea surface. Maximum crest height is 
the maximum value measured during the observation period.’

sea_surface_wave_maximum_trough_depth (m)
‘The trough is the lowest point of a wave. Trough depth is the vertical 
distance between the trough and the calm sea surface. Maximum trough depth is 
the maximum value measured during the observation period.’

The current status of these names can also be viewed in the CEDA vocabulary 
editor: 
http://cfeditor.ceda.ac.uk/proposals/1?status=active&namefilter=height+trough&proposerfilter=Roy+Elodie&descfilter=&unitfilter=&yearfilter=&commentfilter=&filter+and+display=Filter.

The next update of the standard name table will take place on 19th July.

Best wishes,
Alison
------
Alison Pamment                                                       Tel: +44 
1235 778065
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis         Email: 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
R25, 2.22
Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.


From: CF-metadata [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris 
Barker
Sent: 13 May 2016 17:13
To: Nan Galbraith
Cc: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Waves

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 9:18 AM, Nan Galbraith 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Significant wave height is a statistic computed from wave measurements
and corresponds to the average height of the highest one third of the waves,
where the height is defined as the vertical distance from a wave trough to
the following wave crest.

works for me.

Thanks,

-CHB


--

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
NOAA/NOS/OR&R            (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

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