[CF-metadata] Need for standard name "ocean_pressure"?

[Rich Signell]

CF folks,

Don Murrya & I ran into a problem using the Integrated Data Viewer
(IDV) last week that suggested the need for a standard way to
determine whether a pressure variable is in water or the atmosphere.
We currently have a "air_pressure" standard_name, but no
"ocean_pressure".

The IDV utilizes CF conventions, and when it sees pressure as a
vertical coordinate, it uses a standard atmosphere to convert to
height in meters for the purpose of visualization.   This works fine
for atmospheric pressure, but when I tried to view my oceanographic
salinity and temperature profiles (which also have a vertical
coordinate of pressure), of course it failed to plot them below the
sea surface.

I suggested to Don that the perhaps IDV could use the units of
pressure to determine atmosphere or ocean, since oceanographers nearly
always use decibars  (one decibar being nearly equal to 1 meter of
water).

But a much better way would be to have a standard name that indicates
that we are measuring pressure below the sea surface.  (0 pressure = 0
meters depth).

Could just adding "ocean_pressure" as a standard name suffice?

Thanks,
Rich

-- 
Richard P. Signell   (508) 457-2229
USGS, 384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598