object of interest

[mabablue]

The substance, taxon or other physical/chemical phenomenon of the feature of interest that is being observed. We decided to start with:

1.  Nitrogen
   

[kitchenprinzessin3880]

Why dont call it 'observation target'?

[mabablue]

Dear Anu, in this stage we are not discussing the ultimate term we will use in the Interoperability Framework. We only want to use a term we understand with a definition we can agree on for internal discussions. If you still think we should change this, please let us know.

[lbtgnn68]

Other synonymous:
Parameter > "a numerical or other measurable factor forming one of a set that defines a system or sets the conditions of its operation" (google.com).
feature-of-interest > An observation results in a value being assigned to a phenomenon. The phenomenon is a property of a feature, the latter being the feature-of-interest of the observation. The observation uses a procedure, which is often an instrument or sensor [1][2], but may be a process chain, human observer, an algorithm, a computation or simulator. The key idea is that the observation result is an estimate of the value of some property of the feature-of-interest, and the other observation properties provide context or metadata to support evaluation, interpretation and use of the result. The relationship between the properties of an observation and those of its feature-of-interest is key to the semantics of the model.
Topic 20: Observations and Measurements (http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=41579)
10-004r3_Topic_20_Observations_and_Measurements.pdf