[CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly

[Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal]

Hi All:

We have been given files related o sea surface temperature. The observed value has the attributes:

analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;


and the climatology has the attributes:

mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;

What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?

Thanks,

-Roy

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: ***@noaa.gov www: http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/

"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

[Jonathan Gregory]

Dear Roy

There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.

"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.

Best wishes

Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

----- End forwarded message -----

[Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal]

Hi Jonathan:

It strikes me that anomalies are pretty common, and the in the long-run it would be easy to have “anomaly” added to the approved transformations, so that one can just take a standard name and append anomaly somewhere to have a new valid standard name without having to seek approval.

Perhaps I am missing something, but if I were to propose anything it would be what I state above.

-Roy

Post by Jonathan Gregory
Dear Roy
There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.
"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

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

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: ***@noaa.gov www: http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/

"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

[Jonathan Gregory]

Dear Roy

Once this pattern is established, it is unlikely that there would be any
objection to proposals for new X_anomaly (or anomaly_in_X) standard names.
When new names are proposed with existing patterns applied to existing vocab,
it's hardly ever a problem, but standard names are never added to the table
automatically or assumed to exist. They have to be proposed, to prevent the
possibility of something nonsensical being added.

If we were really flooded with anomaly names, then it would be better to
consider putting the "anomaly" indicator somewhere else, requiring a change
to the convention to be devised. That is possible, but it has not threatened
to happen yet, and we don't do things unless we need to!

Best wishes

Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:10:34 -0700
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
It strikes me that anomalies are pretty common, and the in the long-run it would be easy to have “anomaly” added to the approved transformations, so that one can just take a standard name and append anomaly somewhere to have a new valid standard name without having to seek approval.
Perhaps I am missing something, but if I were to propose anything it would be what I state above.
-Roy

Post by Jonathan Gregory
Dear Roy
There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.
"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

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

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

----- End forwarded message -----

[David Hassell]

Hello,

Could a new standard name modifier of "anomaly" be created for this
case?

http://cfconventions.org/cf-conventions/v1.6.0/cf-conventions.html#standard-name-modifiers

This example would then look like:

mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature anomaly" ;

As for some existing standard modifiers, the units of the modified
standard name would have to be dimensionally equivalent to those for
the unmodified standard name.

This seems poosible within the current conventions, and in their
spirit, I think.

All the best,

David

---- Original message from Jonathan Gregory (06PM 30 Mar 16)

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 18:35:52 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-12-10)
Dear Roy
Once this pattern is established, it is unlikely that there would be any
objection to proposals for new X_anomaly (or anomaly_in_X) standard names.
When new names are proposed with existing patterns applied to existing vocab,
it's hardly ever a problem, but standard names are never added to the table
automatically or assumed to exist. They have to be proposed, to prevent the
possibility of something nonsensical being added.
If we were really flooded with anomaly names, then it would be better to
consider putting the "anomaly" indicator somewhere else, requiring a change
to the convention to be devised. That is possible, but it has not threatened
to happen yet, and we don't do things unless we need to!
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:10:34 -0700
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
It strikes me that anomalies are pretty common, and the in the long-run it would be easy to have “anomaly” added to the approved transformations, so that one can just take a standard name and append anomaly somewhere to have a new valid standard name without having to seek approval.
Perhaps I am missing something, but if I were to propose anything it would be what I state above.
-Roy

Post by Jonathan Gregory
Dear Roy
There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.
"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

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

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

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

--
David Hassell
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading,
Earley Gate, PO Box 243,
Reading RG6 6BB, U.K.

Tel : [phone]
E-mail: ***@reading.ac.uk

[Jonathan Gregory]

Dear David

A standard name modifier is the mechanism I would suggest too if we needed one,
but on the other hand (a) in practice the standard name modifiers have caused
complications, discussed in trac tickets, which makes it a less attractive
mechanism, and (b) there are currently only five anomaly standard names, so
this doesn't presently seem to be a need which requires a special mechanism.
By comparison we have hundreds of standard names involving chemical species,
all individually proposed, and so far that has worked all right.

Best wishes

Jonathan

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:17:11 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
Hello,
Could a new standard name modifier of "anomaly" be created for this
case?
http://cfconventions.org/cf-conventions/v1.6.0/cf-conventions.html#standard-name-modifiers
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature anomaly" ;
As for some existing standard modifiers, the units of the modified
standard name would have to be dimensionally equivalent to those for
the unmodified standard name.
This seems poosible within the current conventions, and in their
spirit, I think.
All the best,
David
---- Original message from Jonathan Gregory (06PM 30 Mar 16)

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 18:35:52 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-12-10)
Dear Roy
Once this pattern is established, it is unlikely that there would be any
objection to proposals for new X_anomaly (or anomaly_in_X) standard names.
When new names are proposed with existing patterns applied to existing vocab,
it's hardly ever a problem, but standard names are never added to the table
automatically or assumed to exist. They have to be proposed, to prevent the
possibility of something nonsensical being added.
If we were really flooded with anomaly names, then it would be better to
consider putting the "anomaly" indicator somewhere else, requiring a change
to the convention to be devised. That is possible, but it has not threatened
to happen yet, and we don't do things unless we need to!
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:10:34 -0700
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
It strikes me that anomalies are pretty common, and the in the long-run it would be easy to have “anomaly” added to the approved transformations, so that one can just take a standard name and append anomaly somewhere to have a new valid standard name without having to seek approval.
Perhaps I am missing something, but if I were to propose anything it would be what I state above.
-Roy

Post by Jonathan Gregory
Dear Roy
There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.
"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

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

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

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

--
David Hassell
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading,
Earley Gate, PO Box 243,
Reading RG6 6BB, U.K.
Tel : [phone]

----- End forwarded message -----

[David Hassell]

Dear Jonathan,

Fair enough - I'm happy with that.

All the best,

David

---- Original message from Jonathan Gregory (01PM 31 Mar 16)

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:28:48 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-12-10)
Dear David
A standard name modifier is the mechanism I would suggest too if we needed one,
but on the other hand (a) in practice the standard name modifiers have caused
complications, discussed in trac tickets, which makes it a less attractive
mechanism, and (b) there are currently only five anomaly standard names, so
this doesn't presently seem to be a need which requires a special mechanism.
By comparison we have hundreds of standard names involving chemical species,
all individually proposed, and so far that has worked all right.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:17:11 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
Hello,
Could a new standard name modifier of "anomaly" be created for this
case?
http://cfconventions.org/cf-conventions/v1.6.0/cf-conventions.html#standard-name-modifiers
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature anomaly" ;
As for some existing standard modifiers, the units of the modified
standard name would have to be dimensionally equivalent to those for
the unmodified standard name.
This seems poosible within the current conventions, and in their
spirit, I think.
All the best,
David
---- Original message from Jonathan Gregory (06PM 30 Mar 16)

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 18:35:52 +0100
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-12-10)
Dear Roy
Once this pattern is established, it is unlikely that there would be any
objection to proposals for new X_anomaly (or anomaly_in_X) standard names.
When new names are proposed with existing patterns applied to existing vocab,
it's hardly ever a problem, but standard names are never added to the table
automatically or assumed to exist. They have to be proposed, to prevent the
possibility of something nonsensical being added.
If we were really flooded with anomaly names, then it would be better to
consider putting the "anomaly" indicator somewhere else, requiring a change
to the convention to be devised. That is possible, but it has not threatened
to happen yet, and we don't do things unless we need to!
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:10:34 -0700
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
It strikes me that anomalies are pretty common, and the in the long-run it would be easy to have “anomaly” added to the approved transformations, so that one can just take a standard name and append anomaly somewhere to have a new valid standard name without having to seek approval.
Perhaps I am missing something, but if I were to propose anything it would be what I state above.
-Roy

Post by Jonathan Gregory
Dear Roy
There are a handful of standard names for anomalies of the form X_anomaly,
where X is some other standard name. You could propose a new one for this.
It could be sea_surface_foundation_temperature_anomaly, like the existing ones,
but if that's too hard to understand,
anomaly_in_sea_surface_foundation_temperature
might be clearer.
"anomaly" could be handled by some other new CF convention if it was needed
for hundreds of quantities. This is of course possible, but so far there have
been few requests for anomaly names, so it's easier and sufficient to create
new standard names for them, I think.
Best wishes
Jonathan

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:16:52 -0700
Subject: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)
analysed_sst:long_name = "analysed sea surface temperature" ;
analysed_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
mean_sst:long_name = "climatological mean sea surface temperature" ;
mean_sst:standard_name = "sea_surface_foundation_temperature" ;
What would be the proper attributes for the anomaly calculated from these?
Thanks,
-Roy
**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

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

**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
***Note new address and phone***
110 Shaffer Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
"From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.

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

--
David Hassell
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading,
Earley Gate, PO Box 243,
Reading RG6 6BB, U.K.
Tel : [phone]

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

--
David Hassell
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading,
Earley Gate, PO Box 243,
Reading RG6 6BB, U.K.

Tel : [phone]
E-mail: ***@reading.ac.uk

[Jonathan Gregory]

Dear Roy

The number_of_observations and status_flag are problematic because they may
apply to several variables with different unmodified standard names and it's
not desirable to duplicate the information. That leaves detection_minimum and
standard_error, which are more like anomaly in principle. I am inclined to
think that standard_error might be better described as a cell_method, since
it's a statistical operation that refers to how the values of the cell might
vary (over repeated measurements).

I agree that it would be natural to describe anomaly as a modifier if we
need to make a special provision for anomalies, as David suggested. In fact
this has been discussed before and it would fit the convention, I think. My
view is that if there are only half-a-dozen use-cases, it's not a problem to
have standard names for them including "anomaly". I think that's better
because to me it seems more robust to have the information glued together in
the standard name, and it avoids adding to the convention.

Best wishes

Jonathan

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2016 10:38:49 -0700
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Standard attributes for anomaly
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124)

Post by Jonathan Gregory
(a) in practice the standard name modifiers have caused
complications, discussed in trac tickets, which makes it a less attractive
mechanism, and

Before I respond further, can you give more detail on this, what are the problems and why these problems would be relevant to anomalies.
Thanks,
-Roy

----- End forwarded message -----