Dear Martin

I agree with your suggestions and clarifications. It would be good to keep
"heat content" because it is widely understood (in the sense that we use it,
J m-2). I agree that "content" implies the amount of something per unit area
integrated over the vertical extent of something else. It's not used only for
mass content; we have a lot of energy content names too e.g.
  thermal_energy_content_of_surface_snow
and this last one suggests that maybe we could say "thermal energy" instead
of "sensible heat" in the name about rainfall temperature? (Sorry - that is
a hideous confusing of email threads by me.) In addition, we have enthalpy,
mole, number and radioactivity content names, all with the same sense.

Best wishes

Jonathan

----- Forwarded message from Martin Juckes - UKRI STFC 
<[email protected]> -----

> Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2018 13:06:26 +0000
> From: Martin Juckes - UKRI STFC <[email protected]>
> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>,
>       "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [CF-metadata]
>       tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
>       units
> 
> Hello Jonathan,
> 
> 
> I agree that the "integral_wrt_depth_" is a little surprising here, but I 
> think it is better than saying temperature when we mean "temperature times 
> thickness".
> 
> 
> In any case, we have a term:
> 
> tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
> 
> which is intended to be the tendency of 
> integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content,
>  which doesn't look right. There should be consistency here -- either include 
> "integral_wrt_depth_" in both cases, or exclude it in both cases.
> 
> 
> When dealing with mass, the use of "content" in a standard name automatically 
> implies a vertical integral, so we might get away without stating it 
> explicitly here, but it is a slightly different usage. The current help text 
> includes the remark that '"Content" indicates a quantity per unit area.', 
> which I find a little cryptic: perhaps it could be expanded to : '"Content" 
> indicates a quantity per unit area, integrated over height or depth.'
> 
> 
> The text explaining "expressed_as_heat_content" could also be adjusted 
> (currently: 'The phrase "expressed_as_heat_content" means that this quantity 
> is calculated as the specific heat capacity times density of sea water 
> multiplied by the conservative temperature of the sea water in the grid 
> cell') to refer to the multiplication by thickness. 
> "expressed_as_heat_content" is only used with sea water potential temperature 
> and conservative temperature.  E.g.
> 
> 'The phrase "expressed_as_heat_content" means that this quantity is 
> calculated as the specific heat capacity times density of sea water 
> multiplied by the conservative temperature of the sea water in the grid cell 
> and integrated over depth. If used for a layer heat content, coordinate 
> bounds should be used to define the extent of the layers'.
> 
> With these modifications, I think we could justify staying with
> 
> tendency_of_sea_water_potential/conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
>  and dropping the  "integral _wrt_depth_" from
> 
> integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
>  and integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> (these are the only two terms which combine integral_wrt_depth and 
> expressed_as_heat_content).
> 
> regards,
> Martin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: CF-metadata <[email protected]> on behalf of Jonathan 
> Gregory <[email protected]>
> Sent: 25 June 2018 10:57
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] 
> tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content units
> 
> Dear Alison and Steve
> 
> I suggest that we can be more relaxed about units for X_expressed_as_Y, so 
> that
> X and Y don't have to be dimensionally equivalent. We can express the change 
> in
> temperature of an ocean layer as a change in heat content by using the heat
> capacity - that's the idea of these names, and similarly for the names with
> tendency_of_sea_water_salinity_expressed_as_salt_content, which have the units
> (kg m-2 s-1) expected for a tendency in salt content, not a tendency in
> salinity (which would be s-1). It's useful to mention temperature (rather than
> heat content) because it allows us to specify whether we mean potential or
> conservative temperature.
> 
> I agree that we could insert integral_wrt_depth_of, for both set of names.
> However this seems a bit surprising since the names are generally for 3D
> quantities. Each cell applies to one ocean layer. The "integral" is just the
> cell value multiplied by the cell thickness.
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Alison Pamment - UKRI STFC 
> <[email protected]> -----
> 
> > Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2018 09:28:28 +0000
> > From: Alison Pamment - UKRI STFC <[email protected]>
> > To: Stephen Griffies - NOAA Federal <[email protected]>
> > CC: Martin Juckes - UKRI STFC <[email protected]>,
> >        "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, Jonathan
> >        Gregory <[email protected]>, Karl Taylor <[email protected]>,
> >        "Durack, Paul J." <[email protected]>
> > Subject: Re:
> >        
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
> >        units
> >
> > Dear Stephen,
> >
> > Thank you for getting back to me.
> >
> > A CF standard name for integral_wrt_depth need not necessarily be 
> > interpreted as a full ocean depth quantity. The limits of the integral are 
> > specified by placing bounds on the vertical coordinate variablle that is 
> > attached to the data variable. The bounds can be used to indicate that an 
> > integral has been calculated over a single model layer, for example. We 
> > recently discussed on the mailing list how to specify the limits if the 
> > integral is calculated over the whole ocean depth and it was agreed that if 
> > no limits (i.e. bounds) are specified then the integral is assumed to be 
> > full depth. This clarification has now been added to the definitions of all 
> > the integral_ wrt_depth standard names.
> >
> > I think Martin's question regarding the units is an important one and it 
> > would be better to be clear in the names that the quantities are vertical 
> > integrals if that is indeed the case. The bounds can then be used to 
> > describe the limits, as above. I think it would then be okay to describe 
> > something as being the tendency of an integrated quantity.  My own question 
> > related to the order in which the operations are carried out on the 
> > variable, I.e. is it the tendency of the vertical integral, or the vertical 
> > integral of the tendency?
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Alison
> > ________________________________
> > From: Stephen Griffies - NOAA Federal <[email protected]>
> > Sent: 21 June 2018 14:00:46
> > To: Pamment, Alison (STFC,RAL,RALSP)
> > Cc: Juckes, Martin (STFC,RAL,RALSP); [email protected]; Jonathan 
> > Gregory; Karl Taylor; Durack, Paul J.
> > Subject: Re: 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> > units
> >
> > Alison,
> >
> > Thanks for staying on top of these matters.
> >
> > The diagnostics "tendency_of_sea_water_" refer to the tendency as 
> > integrated over the thickness of a single model grid cell.
> >
> > In contrast, 
> > "integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content " is 
> > an integral over the full ocean depth from bottom to top.
> >
> > I recommend we keep the naming convention unchanged in order to clearly 
> > distinguish between the two diagnostics.
> >
> > Stephen
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 2:42 AM, Alison Pamment - UKRI STFC 
> > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> > Dear Martin, Stephen and Jonathan,
> >
> > We have seven existing 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> > names (and seven existing 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> > names)all with units of W m-2. I think all of these were introduced for 
> > OMIP.
> >
> > If something is described as a 'heat content' I would expect it to have 
> > units of J m-2. Indeed that is the case for the two existing names
> > integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_ice_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content and 
> > integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_water_potential_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content.
> >  Calculating tendencies of such quantities would then give us units of W 
> > m-2. This suggests to me that the OMIP names should all follow the pattern:
> > tendency_of_integral_wrt_depth_of_sea_water_X_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content
> > where X is 'potential' or 'conservative'. The bounds of the vertical 
> > coordinate variable should give the limits on the integral for each grid 
> > cell.
> >
> > Does this pattern of writing the names match the method of calculating the 
> > quantities (i.e. the tendency of the integral, rather than the integral of 
> > the tendency?)
> >
> > We can of course create aliases to correct the names once we have agreed on 
> > what changes are needed.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Alison
> >
> > ------
> > Alison Pamment                                 Tel: +44 1235 778065
> > NCAS/Centre for Environmental Data Archival    Email: 
> > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
> > STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
> > R25, 2.22
> > Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
> >
> > From: Juckes, Martin (STFC,RAL,RALSP)
> > Sent: 10 June 2018 18:52
> > To: Stephen Griffies - NOAA Federal 
> > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> > Cc: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; Jonathan 
> > Gregory <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>; Karl 
> > Taylor <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>; Pamment, Alison 
> > (STFC,RAL,RALSP) 
> > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>; Durack, Paul 
> > J. <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> > Subject: Re: 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> > units
> >
> > Hi Stephen,
> >
> > thanks, that is clear. There may be an issue with the CF standard name ... 
> > we usually have "integral_wrt_depth" in the name for such quantities. 
> > Perhaps Jonathan or Alison can comment on that,
> >
> > regards,
> > Martin
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Stephen Griffies - NOAA Federal 
> > <mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> > Sent: 10 June 2018 16:52
> > To: Juckes, Martin (STFC,RAL,RALSP)
> > Cc: mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; 
> > Jonathan Gregory; Karl Taylor; Pamment, Alison (STFC,RAL,RALSP); Durack, 
> > Paul J.
> > Subject: Re: 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content 
> > units
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks for the question.
> >
> > As discussed in Griffies et al (2016), we request heat and salt budgets to 
> > be integrated over the thickness of a grid cell.  For the heat budget, this 
> > thickness weighting then leads to units of W m-2 rather than W m-3.
> >
> > There is a good reason to ask for the diagnosed budgets to be integrated 
> > over the thickness of a grid cell.  Namely, most ocean models have 
> > time-dependent grid cell thicknesses. So the only way to ensure budgets can 
> > be closed with offline diagnostics is to have each model perform the 
> > thickness weighting online.
> >
> > Make sense?
> >
> > Best,
> >    Stephen
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jun 10, 2018 at 9:58 AM, Martin Juckes - UKRI STFC 
> > <mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> > Dear Jonathan, Stephen, Karl,
> >
> >
> > I'm puzzled by the units of the CMIP6 variable ocontemptend and teh 
> > associated standard name 
> > tendency_of_sea_water_conservative_temperature_expressed_as_heat_content  
> > -- in the data request and the standard name table respectively with units 
> > "W m-2". This is consistent with the Griffies et al 2016 paper on ocean 
> > diagnostics and with the discussion on the CF mailing list. However, it is 
> > requested as a function of depth, so I would expect to see units of "W m-3" 
> > for the tendency of a heat density.
> >
> >
> > The units "W m-2" are usually used for a surface heat flux. There are a 
> > number of variables related to ocontemptend with the same units.
> >
> >
> > Am I missing something, or should we change the units or the depth 
> > dependency?
> >
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > Martin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Stephen M. Griffies
> > NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab
> > 201 Forrestal Road
> > Princeton, NJ 08542
> > USA
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Stephen M. Griffies
> > NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab
> > 201 Forrestal Road
> > Princeton, NJ 08542
> > USA
> >
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> _______________________________________________
> CF-metadata mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

----- End forwarded message -----
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

Reply via email to