PRISM standard name tables

I still need responses from esp. the sea ice and ocean biogeochemistry model workpackage PIs before the extensions can be proposed to the CF working group. Please comment on the bold non-italic text parts in your tables.

Contents

• Change log
• Notes
• Recommendations
• Atmosphere models
• Atmospheric chemistry models
• Ocean models
• Sea Ice models
• Ocean biogeochemistry models
• Regional atmosphere models

Change Log

Previous versions:
Version 1.2: January-february 2004, Peter van Velthoven - incorporates comments of Jonathan Gregory (CF-expert), Chris Hewitt, Eric Guilyardi (ocean experts), Stefanie Legutke (ECHAM) and Rob van Dorland (radiation expert) . A few recommendations have been added. Many standard names for tracers, fluxes, radiation and stresses have been changed.

Version 1.1: 8 June 2003, Peter van Velthoven - incorporated modifications suggested by Ralf Doescher (land-surface), Yiwen Lu (atmospheric chemistry), Gabriella de Martino (ocean) and Thierry Fichefet (sea-ice), Stefanie Legutke (ECHAM), Jonathan Gregory (CF-expert UK Met.Off.)

Version 1.0: 10 March 2003, Author: Peter van Velthoven

Based on draft supplied by Rosalyn Hatcher and discussions

Notes:

1. italic standard names still need to be proposed to and accepted by the international CF group.
2. bold standard names and plot parameters require confirmation by PRISM participants.
3. Units in ()s are those supplied by a PRISM institute. Units in CF are canonical, which means that there are no prefixes such milli. A scaling factor can in netcdf be specified in the attributes of the variables.
4. I have included a reference to the categories distinguished in the CF documentation (for easier checking):
   • AD = Atmospheric Dynamics table
   • CC = Carbon Cycle table
   • C = Cloud table
   • H = Hydrology table
   • OD = Ocean Dynamics table
   • R = Radiation table
   • SI = Sea Ice table
   • S = Surface table
   • Tables for Atmospheric Chemistry (AC) and for Oceanic Biogeochemistry (OB) need to be proposed to the CF group.
   • F = full standard name table contains the entries from all above tables. Only standard names included in this table are presently allowed in CF.
   These CF standard name tables contain links to more extensive definitions of each standard_name, which is useful for identifying the right standard name for our purpose.
5. The last 4 columns in the tables below were added to allow definition of default plotting scales in the PRISM visualisation software. The default plotting scales may be identified using the information in the netCDF header (CF standard name etc.) but will likely not be part of the netCDF header themselves.
6. Evaporation includes sublimation (evaporation of ice), where_sea includes where_sea_ice
7. grid_northward and grid_eastward refer to the directions along the grid axis' that are closest to northward and eastward directions resp. (if northpole of the grid is not at the geographical northpole).
   The phrase _grid_ should only be used when relevant, i.e. when the pole is not at the geographical north pole.
8. Sea ice extent is the envelope of all cells with sea ice area fraction greater than 0.n (n must be given as attribute).
9. CF/udunits does not yet allow for PSU (Practical Salinity Units) for salinity variables, but it will be proposed to add this unit.
10. I added extensions _where_land, _where_sea and _where_sea_ice to the standard_names of water_fluxes. These will also be needed for the other heat fluxes and radiation variables where they refer to interfaces between compartments (for the precise definition of coupling fields). And we also need _where_open_sea because sea includes sea_ice.
    
11. The PRISM and CF definitions are to some extent different from the ALMA (Assistance for Land-surface Modelling activities) guidelines. For pure land surface variables we should stick as closely as possible to the ALMA guidelines. For other variables the respective communities may have different preferences, in which case we made our own choice. I noted that Alma does not use the phrase "flux", but rather "rate", where CF would use "flux" because it describes a flow.

Recommendations

These recommendations have not been endorsed as a PRISM convention as PRISM believes they should be discussed in a wider scientific forum.

1. Recommendation for water units:
   • Use precipitation fluxes (kg m-2 s-1) rather than (lwe) precipitation rates (m/s).
   • For accumulated precipitation do not to use lwe variables such as lwe_thickness_of_snowfall_amount but rather variables with units kgm-2 such as snowfall_amount.
   • Use the geometrical length unit for sea ice thickness and lake ice thickness (m). The is not an lwe unit!
2. Recommendation for use of _downward_ and _upward_ in standard names (defining the sign of fluxes and stresses):
   It is recommended to follow the conventions generally used in the respective disciplines:
   • The sign of the component of a vector variable always needs to be specified in the standard name.
   • Always use _downward_ in standard names for stresses.
   • Always use _upward_ in standard names for heat fluxes in the atmosphere (e.g. latent or sensible heat fluxes). Always use _downward_ in standard names for heat fluxes in the ocean.
   • Always use _upward_ in standard names for fresh water fluxes ???
   • Precipitation fluxes are by definition downward (CF does not provide "_downward_" in standard names for precipitation fluxes).
   • Always use _downward_ for fluxes of water into the ocean (like precipitation)
   • For radiation the words _upwelling_ as well as _downwelling_ are allowed in CF in order to distinguish radiative fluxes that may go both upward and downward at the same time. Upwelling and downwellling thus already imply a sign, so _upward_ or _downward_ is omitted. Otherwise, use _net_downward_ for net solar (shortwave) radiation and _net_upward_ for net longwave radiation in order to indicate their sign.
   • In CF the word _net_ is only allowed in the standard_name phrases net_shortwave_flux, _net_longwave_flux, _net_radiative_flux and net_primary_productivity. For total heat flux simply use the phrase heat_flux.
   • At interfaces the different disciplines often have different definitions and preferences. We cannot make a recommendation here. This should be discussed in a wider scientific forum outside PRISM.
   • Note that the fact that this is just recommendation implies that CF should allow both upward and downward in the corresponding standard_names.

WP3b - Atmosphere model component
 

WP3c - Atmospheric chemistry models

Expected to be added in the near future: deposition, emissions, tendency_due_to_convective_transport, ....

WP3e - Ocean model component

WP3f - Sea-ice models
 

WP3g - Ocean biogeochemistry models

  Please check the bold text!

Variable Name	CF Standard Name	CF category	Canonical unit
new entries march 2004:		new	moles m-3
alkalinity concentration	mole_concentration_of_equivalent_alkalinity_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
oxygen concentration	mole_concentration_of_molecular_oxygen_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
calcite concentration	mole_concentration_of_calcite_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
DOC concentration	mole_concentration_of_organic_carbon_dissolved_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
POC concentration	mole_concentration_of_particulate_organic_carbon_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
big particle organic carbon concentration	mole_concentration_of_particulate_organic_carbon_in_sea_water + attribute	new	moles m-3
small iron particles concentration	mole_concentration_of_particulate_iron_in_sea_water + attribute	new	moles m-3
small iron particles concentratio	mole_concentration_of_particulate_iron_in_sea_water + attribute	new	moles m-3
particulate Si concentration	mole_concentration_of_particulate_silicon_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
microzooplankton concentration	mole_concentration_of_microzooplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
mesozooplankton concentration	mole_concentration_of_mesozooplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
DIC concentration	mole_concentration_of_inorganic_carbon_dissolved_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
iron concentration	mole_concentration_of_iron_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
silicon concentration	mole_concentration_of_silicon_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
silicate concentration (table entry mixed up silicon and silicate! I guess we need both)	mole_concentration_of_silicate_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
phosphate concentration	mole_concentration_of_phosphate_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
diatoms concentration	mole_concentration_of_diatoms_in_sea_water this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
nanophytoplankton concentration	mole_concentration_of_nanophytoplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
diatoms Fe concentration	mole_concentration_of_iron_in_diatoms this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
nano Fe concentration	mole_concentration_of_iron_in_nanophytoplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
diatoms Chl concentration	mole_concentration_of_chlorophyll_in_diatoms this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
nano Chl concentration	mole_concentration_of_chlorophyll in_nanophytoplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
diatoms Si concentration	mole_concentration_of_silicon_in_diatoms this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
C13 concentration	mole_concentration_of_ocean_carbon13_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
O18 concentration	mole_concentration_of_oxygen18_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
cocco Fe concentration	mole_concentration_of_iron_in_coccolithophorid this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
cocco Chl concentration	mole_concentration_of_chlorophyll_in_coccolithophorid	new	moles m-3
cocco concentration	mole_concentration_of_coccolithophorid_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
nitrogen concentration	mole_concentration_of_nitrogen_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
carbon concentration	mole_concentration_of_carbon_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
dimethyl sulfide concentration	mole_concentration_of_dimethyl sulfide_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
DIC concentration	mole_concentration_of_inorganic_carbon_dissolved_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
particulate organic phosphate concentration	mole_concentration_of_particulate_organic_phosphate_in_sea_water	new	moles m-3
phytoplankton concentration	mole_concentration_of_phytoplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
zooplankton concentration	mole_concentration_of_zooplankton this only exists in the ocean so in_sea_water van be omitted	new	moles m-3
Mean value of chlorophyll in top 20m of the ocean	mole_concentration_of_chlorophyll_in_sea_water + attributes	new	mole m-3
	Ocean biogeochemistry: please check the bold entries below here!	new	moles m-3
oxygen carbon concentration	I do not understand what oxygen carbon is !	new	???
detritus (POC, calcium, OPA)	???_concentration_of_detritus_in_sea_water What is the unit?	new	???
total alkalinity	I think this is the same as mole_concentration_of_equivalent_alkalinity_in_sea_water (see above) so it could be removed here ?
Contents of state variables Ocean biogeochemistry: Please specify if these are the ocean columns (mole m-2) or the total ocean content (moles) of P,N,C,Si,O2,14C,13C,DMS	ocean_mole_content_of_phosporus ocean_mole_content_of_nitrogen ocean_mole_content_of_carbon ocean_mole_content_of_silicon ocean_mole_content_of_molecular_oxygen ocean_mole_content_of_carbon14 ocean_mole_content_of_carbon13 ocean_mole_content_of_dimethyl sulfide		mole or mole/m2?
Surface tracer concentration (P,N,C,Si,O2,14C,13C,DMS,..) Ocean biogeochemistry: Please check if we need these!	surface_mole_concentration_of_phosporus_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_nitrogen_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_carbon_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_silicon_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_molecular_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_carbon14_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_carbon13_in_sea_water surface_mole_concentration_of_dimethyl_sulfide_in_sea_water I did not use the construct: sea_surface_mole_concentration_of_.. because we need to know on which side of the interface the tracer is present.	new	mole/m3 (mol/L)
Integrated values of processes (i.e. primers production, export dissolution, sedimentation) Please check and complete!	tendency_of_mole_concentration_of_phosphorus_in_sea_water_due_to_net_chemical_production tendency_of_mole_concentration_of_phosphorus_in_sea_water_due_to_export tendency_of_mole_concentration_of_phosphorus_in_sea_water_due_to_dissolution tendency_of_mole_concentration_of_phosphorus_in_sea_water_due_to_sedimentation Does this refer to the ocean columns, cells or the total ocean? What is export (horizontal advection)? Is this complete? We need a list of species here.	new	mole/m2/s
Additional ocean variables	I only included new ocean variables here
Zonal eddy diffusivity	ocean_zonal_eddy_diffusivity	new	m2s-1
Meridional eddy diffusivity	ocean_meridional_eddy_diffusivity	new	m2s-1
Additional sea ice variables	I only included new sea ice variables here
northward ice growth rate	northward_ice_growth_rate	new	ms-1
eastward ice growth rate	eastward_ice_growth_rate	new	ms-1
Couplings to atmospheric chemistry
Ocean and atmosphere p-CO2	partial_pressure_of_carbon_dioxide_in_air partial_pressure_of_carbon_dioxide_in_sea_water One might prefer mole_fraction_of_ over partial_pressure because this is the unit used in the atmosphere. We'll have to convert somewhere anyway.	new	Pa (atm)
Dust deposition flux	deposition_flux_of_dust_where_open_sea Note that the unit is not moles m-2s-1 since the molar mass of dust is variable.	new	kgm-2s-1
surface flux of CO2	surface_upward_flux_of_carbon_dioxide_where_open_sea	new	moles m-2s-1
surface flux of C14	surface_upward_flux_of_carbon14_where_open_sea	new	moles m-2s-1
surface flux of DMS	surface_upward_flux_of_dimethyl_sulfide_where_open_sea	new	moles m-2s-1
Need to add surface flux of O2/3?	surface_upward_flux_of_.._where_open_sea	new	moles m-2s-1

WP3h - Regional models