Gases are compressible and change volume when placed under pressure, are heated or are cooled. A volume of gas under one set of pressure and temperature conditions is not equivalent to the same gas under different conditions. References will be made to "actual" flow rate through a meter and "standard" or "base" flow rate through a meter with units such as acm/h (actual cubic meters per hour), sm/sec (standard cubic meters per second), kscm/h (thousand standard cubic meters per hour), LFM (linear feet per minute), or MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet per day).
Gas mass flow rate can be directly measured, independent of pressure and temperature effects, with ultrasonic flow meters, thermal mass flowmeters, Coriolis mass flowmeters, or mass flow controllers.