Please review EML unit dictionary

[Tim Bergsma]

Don,

Speaking as someone who worked on the unit dictionary, your review
comments are priceless.  Even those items that are not resolved
immediately are certain to be valuable later.  Thanks.

David,  

will Don's comments get checked into bugzilla?


Tim.

> "Henshaw, Don" wrote:
> 
> David,
> I have reviewed the Andrews unit dictionary.  The following are units
> of measurement that we have used at the Andrews that I did not find in
> eml-2.0.0\eml-unitDictionary.xml, as well as a few other notes.
> 
> Thanks,
> don
> 
> pressure: hectopascal (=100 pascals)
> volume: cubic centimeters
> volumetricArea: cubic meters per hectare
> volumetricArea: cubic meters per square meter
> massDensity: megagrams per cubic meter
> arealMassDensity: grams per square centimeter
> arealMassDensity: megagrams per hectare
> arealMassDensityRate: grams per square meter per day
> amountOfSubstanceWeight: micromoles per gram
> amountOfSubstanceWeightFlux: micromoles per gram per day
> amountOfSubstanceWeightFlux: micromoles per gram per hour
> amountOfSubstanceWeightFlux: nanomoles per gram per day
> amountOfSubstanceWeightFlux: nanomoles per gram per hour
> speed: inches per hour (used more as a rate than a speed)
> energy?:  megajoule per square meter per day (solar radiation)
> energy?:  langley (1 langley=4.187joules per square centimeter, 41870
> joules per square meter)
> energy?: langleys per day (solar radiation)
> conductance?: micro mhos per centimeter
> 
> I do not think there are unit types for the following (I assigned unit
> type names):
> massPerMassRate: micrograms per gram per day
> massPerMassRate: micrograms per gram per hour
> massPerMassRate: micrograms per gram per week
> massPerMassRate: nanograms per gram per hour
> areaPerArea: square meters per hectare
> luminanceRate??: micromoles per square meter per second (light
> measurement from LICOR instrument)
> 
> Not sure how these fit:
> milliequivalents per 100 grams
> pH units
> ppm (parts per million)
> ppb (parts per billion)
> 
> What about the following use of degrees, minutes, seconds?
> degrees azimuth
> decimal degrees of latitude or longitude
> degrees, minutes, seconds of latitude, longitude
> 
> On another topic:
> Can a julian date be represented in the format string
> for measurementScale of datetime
> i.e., YYYYddd
> 
> Other notes (being rather picky): pertaining to eml-unitDictionary.xml
> (2.0.0)
> following units seems to show wrong abbreviation and multiplier
> milliGramsPerMilliLiter
> cubicMicrometersPerGram
> 
> The following unit names seem contrary to the convention of showing
> units in singular form:
> squareCentimeters
> squareMillimeters
> squareKilometers
> cubicMeterPerKilogram
> 
> Not all units show an abbreviation, even when an obvious one exists,
> ie., kg/ha or g/g
> liter shows "L" as the abbreviation
> 
> 
>      -----Original Message-----
>      From: David Blankman [mailto:dblankman at lternet.edu]
>      Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 1:52 PM
>      To: Iml
>      Cc: Eml-Dev (E-mail)
>      Subject: Please review EML unit dictionary
> 
>      Request of LTER IM's
>      Somehow two units that were supposed to have been in the
>      unitDictionary, numberPerMilliliter and numberPerLiter were
>      mistakenly omitted. Prior to releasing a supplement to the
>      unitDictionary and therefore to EML, we would like to see if
>      there are any other units that we missed.
> 
>      In reviewing the unitDictionary, remember that the unit
>      names in the unitDictionary are often more abstract than the
>      ones that you actually use. For example, one of the units
>      that we are in the process of adding is numberPerMilliliter.
>      The "number" portion is an abstract representation of the
>      unit "cells/milliliter".  A unit like microgramsPerGram is
>      an abstract representation of a class of measurements like:
>      micrograms of carbon per gram of soil.
> 
>      --
>      David E. Blankman
>      Database Integration Developer
>      Long Term Ecological Research Network Office
>      University of New Mexico
>      801 University, SE #104
>      Albuquerque, NM 87106
>      (505) 272-7346 / (505) 272-7080 FAX

-- 
Tim Bergsma
LTER Information Manager
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
Michigan State University
Hickory Corners, MI   49060
269/671-2337
tbergsma at kbs.msu.edu
http://lter.kbs.msu.edu