[CF-metadata] Vertical Coordinate

[Burkhardt.Rockel at gkss.de]

Dear member of CF community,

we are using the non-hydrostatic weather forecast model of the German 
Weather Service. The vertical coordinate used in hydrostatic models is 
often defined as described in the CF-conventions (e.g. dimensionless sigma 
or hybrid pressure-sigma coordinates). With given height dependent 
coefficients (e.g. "a" and "b" ) and surface pressure field the pressure 
at the vertical levels of the model can be computed. For the 
non-hydrostatic model we are using its a bit more complicated since the 
pressure at the model levels is P=Pref+Pdev, where Pref  is the pressure 
of a reference atmosphere and Pdev is the deviation from the reference 
profile. 
My Questions:
 Is there a CF conformal way to define a three-dimensional variable (in my 
case P(lon,lat,lev)) as vertical axis? 
I guess simply giving P the attribute "axis=Z" would be not sufficient?
Should a three dimensional variable like air temperature (T(lon,lat,lev)) 
have the attribute "coordinates="P" in this case?

Thank you, I am looking forward to your answer.

Burkhardt

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Dr. Burkhardt Rockel
GKSS Forschungszentrum
Max-Planck-Strasse
D-21502 Geesthacht
Germany
Phone: +49 4152 87 2008
Fax: +49 4152 87 2020
Email: rockel at gkss.de
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