Dear Jim and Karl,

thank you for your quick answers.

Karl, it seems that the tripolar grid mentioned in the link you sent is defined 
in this paper:

Murray, R. J., 1996: Explicit generation of orthogonal grids for ocean models. 
Journal of Computational Physics, 126, 251-273

which is cited by the paper from the NEMO group (Madec et al) that I mentioned 
in my original question. I need to check carefully if the definition is really 
identical or if they simply got inspired by the "Murray tripolar grid" and 
derived something similar but not exactly identical. In that case, it means 
there are several types of tripolar grids... 
One first difference I can directly identify is that the separation between the 
regular lat-lon and the modified part is not at the same latitude: 65N for 
Murray tripolar grid and 40N for the NEMO one.
In any case, if someone already defined tripolar grids in a CF compliant way, I 
can definitely start from there.

Regarding X and Y, I thought that "projection_[x|y]_coordinate" were used in 
the case of a projection on an Euclidian plane since the units of both standard 
names are "meters". 
What I am really after is more what you are suggesting later in your answer, 
i.e. mesh_grid_[i|j]_index. It feels weird to have a 2-D lat and lon as 
coordinates axis Y/X, this is why I need I would like to add those 1-D 
coordinate variables.  I also noticed the grid_latitude and grid_longitude in 
the standard_name table but it is explicitly for rotated grids.

Would it be possible to request mesh_grid_i_index and mesh_grid_j_index? 
(regardless of the feasibility of defining a proper tripolar crs)

____________________________________ 

Dr. Sébastien Villaume 
Analyst 
ECMWF Shinfield Park, 
Reading RG2 9AX, UK 
+44 7825 521592 
[email protected] 
____________________________________

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Biard" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 30 March, 2017 17:42:01
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] CF compliant tripolar grid representation

Sébastien, 

If I'm not mistaken, we would need to propose a new grid_mapping to be added to 
the Conventions that would define a Tripolar Coordinate Reference System, along 
with any attributes that don't currently exist that are needed to complete the 
definition. I did a search for a standard tripolar CRS in proj4 or epsg, and 
was unable to find one. Is it possible to make such a definition? 


Regarding the standard names for your X and Y coordinate variables, I think you 
could use "projection_x/y_coordinate" once a grid_mapping has been defined. Of 
course you could always leave the attribute off, since a standard_name 
attribute is not a requirement. 
If making a new grid_mapping is not feasible, you could request standard names 
along the lines of mesh_grid_i_index and mesh_grid_j_index. These standard 
names would (on reading their definitions) make it clear that the measurements 
are on a mesh grid for which there is no CRS. At least that's what comes to 
mind at the moment. 

Grace and peace, 

Jim 

On 3/30/17 11:52 AM, Sebastien Villaume wrote: 



Hello all,

I am looking for the best approach to describe in a CF compliant way the 
tripolar grids usually used in NEMO configurations.

Basically, the difference with a usual bipolar grid (north pole-south pole) is 
that the north pole is split into 2 poles moved over Canada and Russia (to have 
distortions/singularities not over the ocean). A good visual representation can 
be found here: 
http://www.geomar.de/typo3temp/pics/globe_grid2_14_b8edb639ae.png everything 
south of the green line (40degN) is identical to a regular grid, but everything 
north of it is computed using a technique described here: 

Madec, G. and M. Imbard, 1996 : A global ocean mesh to overcome the north pole 
singularity. Clim. Dyn., 12, 381–388.


The usual NEMO output of the grid looks like this:

    float longitude(y, x) ;
        longitude:standard_name = "longitude" ;
        longitude:units = "degrees_east" ;
        longitude:long_name = "longitude" ;
    float latitude(y, x) ;
        latitude:standard_name = "latitude" ;
        latitude:units = "degrees_north" ;
        latitude:long_name = "latitude" ;


Basically both latitudes and longitudes need to be specified for each grid 
point, hence lat and lon are 2D arrays. This is not a problem itself but I 
would like to give more information through maybe grid_mapping or crs so it is 
clear that the grid is tripolar. This is useful information if one want to 
project/interpolate this back to a more regular representation.

Looking at the CF conventions, I can see that grids can be fairly nicely 
documented but nothing for tripolar grids. 

Is there some documentation/guidelines on how to derive a proper 
grid_mapping/crs with valid attributes for tripolar grids? 

I would also like to add to my netcdf file a way to better describe axes:

    double y(y) ;
        y:units = "1" ;
        y:long_name = "j-index of mesh grid" ;
        y:standard_name = ??? ;
    double x(x) ;
        x:units = "1" ;
        x:long_name = "i-index of mesh grid" ;
        x:standard_name = ??? ;

what would be the standard name of these?

Thanks,

____________________________________ 

Dr. Sébastien Villaume 
Analyst 
ECMWF Shinfield Park, 
Reading RG2 9AX, UK 
+44 7825 521592 [email protected] 
____________________________________
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