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Appendix A: Standard Name Modifiers

In the Units column, u indicates units dimensionally equivalent to those for the unmodified standard name.

Table C.1. Standard Name Modifiers

Modifier	Units	Description
detection_minimum	u	The smallest data value which is regarded as a detectable signal.
number_of_observations	1	The number of discrete observations or measurements from which a data value has been derived. The use of this modifier is deprecated and the standard_name number_of_observations is preferred to describe this type of metadata variable.
standard_error	u	*The uncertainty of the data value. The standard error includes both systematic and statistical uncertainty. By default it is assumed that the values supplied are for one standard error. If the values supplied are for some multiple of the standard error, the standard_error ancillary variable should have an attribute standard_error_multiplier stating the multiplication factor.
status_flag		Flag values indicating the quality or other status of the data values. The variable should have flag_values or flag_masks (or both) and flag_meanings attributes to show how it should be interpreted ([flags]). The use of this modifier is deprecated and the standard_name status_flag is preferred to describe this type of metadata variable.

*The definition of this modifier implies that if u is a either unit of temperature, or a unit of temperature multiplied by some other unit, the temperature in u must be interpreted as a temperature difference. Therefore the units_metadata attribute, if present, must have the value temperature: difference, even if the corresponding data variable without the modifier would have units_metadata="temperature: on_scale". See [temperature-units] for explanation.