Standard name: AMSR products

[o2kenobi]

Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) Author: Yuling Wu

We are updating our micro-wave remote sensing products with the new version of CF conventions at our data center and we have a few physical variables we couldn't find in the existing Standard Names list (Version 72). As we think these variables are quite commonly used both in modeling and observation in meteorology (in microphysics particularly) we'd like to propose the addition of these variables to the Standard Names list.

-Term: lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate -Description: "Frozen Precipitation" in the earth's atmosphere means precipitation of water in frozen phase only. The abbreviation "lwe" means liquid water equivalent. -Canonical Units: m s-1

-Term: atmosphere_rain_water_content -Description: "Content" indicates a quantity per unit area. The term "rain_water" is referred to "rain droplet" in contrast to "cloud liquid water" to "cloud droplet". The "atmosphere content" of a quantity refers to the vertical integral from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. For the content between specified levels in the atmosphere, standard names including content_of_atmosphere_layer are used. -Canonical Units: kg m-2

-Term: vegetation_roughtness_length -Description: "Vegetation roughness" in fluid dynamics means the surface roughness caused by vegetation in impeding the flow. -Canonical Units: m

[GeyerB]

In https://github.com/cf-convention/vocabularies/issues/96 we discussed the 'atmosphere rain water content' and finally agreed on atmosphere_mass_content_of_liquid_precipitation Regards Beate

[JonathanGregory]

Dear Yuling

-Term: lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate Since there are several existing names for solid_precipitation, including solid_precipitation_flux, and also lwe_snowfall_rate, I think this name should be lwe_solid_precipitation_rate

-Term: atmosphere_rain_water_content Since we have an existing name of mass_concentration_of_rain_in_air, and many names of the form atmosphere_mass_content_of_X, I think this should be atmosphere_mass_content_of_rain

-Term: vegetation_roughness_length [NB not roughtness] Since this term attributes part of the surface_roughness_length, which is an existing name, to a particular cause, I think surface_roughness_length_due_to_vegetation would be a logical choice. Alternatively, it could be named by surface_roughness_length with an area_type of vegetation. That would be a more general approach.

Best wishes

Jonathan

[o2kenobi]

Dear Yuling -Term: lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate Since there are several existing names for solid_precipitation, including solid_precipitation_flux, and also lwe_snowfall_rate, I think this name should be lwe_solid_precipitation_rate -Term: atmosphere_rain_water_content Since we have an existing name of mass_concentration_of_rain_in_air, and many names of the form atmosphere_mass_content_of_X, I think this should be atmosphere_mass_content_of_rain -Term: vegetation_roughness_length [NB not roughtness] Since this term attributes part of the surface_roughness_length, which is an existing name, to a particular cause, I think surface_roughness_length_due_to_vegetation would be a logical choice. Alternatively, it could be named by surface_roughness_length with an area_type of vegetation. That would be a more general approach. Best wishes Jonathan

@GeyerB @JonathanGregory Thanks for the quick replies and solutions. The existing "atmosphere_mass_content_of_liquid_precipitation" would work for "atmosphere_rain_water_content" that I proposed. And both "lwe_solid_precipitation_rate" and "surface_roughness_length_due_to_vegetation" sound good and coherent with the naming convention of the CF Standard names. However, can you also create an alias "lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate" as well? The reason I ask for it is that "frozen rain" is an already very commonly used term and it's quite well defined ("frozen") and it refers to a thermal/energy state in the atmosphere and in cloud microphysics. On the other hand, it is very rare to see "solid precipitation" used in any atmospheric science related literature.

Thanks again, Yuling

[feggleton]

I have transferred this to the correct repo so we don't lose the history and it can be discussed if we still want to continue this request.

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[efisher008]

Dear @o2kenobi,

I am following up on this issue after its migration from the cf-convention/discuss repo to the cf-convention/vocabularies repo yesterday, as it appears nothing was decided and the issue is now quite old without a conclusion.

I can see that these names are still listed as 'under discussion' in the CF editor:

• vegetation_roughtness_length (should this be vegetation_roughness_length, a spelling correction?)
• lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate
• atmosphere_mass_content_of_rain

And there are two further newer entries in the editor:

• lwe_solid_precipitation_rate
• surface_roughness_length_due_to_vegetation

From the above discussion, it sounds like the name atmosphere_mass_content_of_rain should be discarded in favour of the existing standard name atmosphere_mass_content_of_liquid_precipitation, and that the names a) lwe_solid_precipitation_rate and b) surface_roughness_length_due_to_vegetation have been incorrectly recorded as standalone names, so they need to replace the originally proposed names a) lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate and b) vegetation_roughtness_length respectively.

We (@JonathanGregory?) would also need to discuss @o2kenobi's request to create an alias lwe_frozen_precipitation_rate for the name lwe_solid_precipitation_rate as well. The conversation in https://github.com/cf-convention/vocabularies/issues/59 seemed somewhat related so might be of interest here.

Does this sound accurate?

Best regards, Ellie

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