[newbie] 3D LCC: Cartesian, rectilinear, other?

I'm very new to NCL (having used mostly R) and insufficiently
geospatially adept (but learning). I'm trying to select the appropriate
method(s) for regridding gas concentrations from a global 3D grid
(coordinates=longitude, latitude, sigma) to a regional 3D grid
(coordinates=col, row, sigma) on a Lambert Conformal Conic (LCC)
projection over North America with 12-km horizontal resolution.

I suspect my difficulty is at least in part due to my uncertainty
regarding definitions of some terms as used in the NCL docs. (It may
also be due to my being totally confused :-) My global input grid is
pretty clearly spherical and curvilinear (no?) but I'm much less certain
about the terms to use regarding my regional output grid:

Does NCL consider a 3D LCC grid "Cartesian"? I'm unsure if the NCL docs
are using the term in the strictest sense (i.e., in 3D, a grid with
uniform cubic elements) or in the more usual modeling sense (a grid
projected on a plane and therefore addressable by Cartesian
coordinates). I'm pretty sure my regional output grid is "Cartesian" in
the sense used by the ESMF documents (unfortunately), but I suspect the
ESMF and NCL docs have different authors.

(For that matter, can any grid that has horizontal dimensions in length
and vertical dimensions in pressure be Cartesian in the strict sense?
But I digress.)

If not Cartesian, I'm assuming a 3D LCC grid is at least considered
rectilinear. If a 3D LCC grid is *not* considered rectilinear, I am very
confused, and would appreciate an explanation.

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche@pobox.com> <Roche.Tom@epa.gov>
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Received on Wed Nov 21 21:22:16 2012