Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1348171

• Metadata Summary

• Problem Reports

• Data Access Policy

• Narrative Documents

• Project Information

• Data Activity or Cruise Information

• Fixed Station Information

• BODC Quality Flags

• SeaDataNet Quality Flags

Metadata Summary

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Data Access Policy

Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

You must always use the following attribution statement to acknowledge the source of the information: "Contains data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council."

Narrative Documents

Niskin Bottle

The Niskin bottle is a device used by oceanographers to collect subsurface seawater samples. It is a plastic bottle with caps and rubber seals at each end and is deployed with the caps held open, allowing free-flushing of the bottle as it moves through the water column.

Standard Niskin

The standard version of the bottle includes a plastic-coated metal spring or elastic cord running through the interior of the bottle that joins the two caps, and the caps are held open against the spring by plastic lanyards. When the bottle reaches the desired depth the lanyards are released by a pressure-actuated switch, command signal or messenger weight and the caps are forced shut and sealed, trapping the seawater sample.

Lever Action Niskin

The Lever Action Niskin Bottle differs from the standard version, in that the caps are held open during deployment by externally mounted stainless steel springs rather than an internal spring or cord. Lever Action Niskins are recommended for applications where a completely clear sample chamber is critical or for use in deep cold water.

Clean Sampling

A modified version of the standard Niskin bottle has been developed for clean sampling. This is teflon-coated and uses a latex cord to close the caps rather than a metal spring. The clean version of the Levered Action Niskin bottle is also teflon-coated and uses epoxy covered springs in place of the stainless steel springs. These bottles are specifically designed to minimise metal contamination when sampling trace metals.

Deployment

Bottles may be deployed singly clamped to a wire or in groups of up to 48 on a rosette. Standard bottles and Lever Action bottles have a capacity between 1.7 and 30 L. Reversing thermometers may be attached to a spring-loaded disk that rotates through 180° on bottle closure.

Inorganic nutrients concentrations (micromolar sensitivity nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, and silicate) for UK SOLAS cruise Discovery D325 (INSPIRE)

Originator's Data Acquisition and Analysis

Water samples were collected from both the stainless steel (24 x 20 L bottles) and titanium (20 x 10 L bottles) CTD/Rosette systems as well as from the trace metal clean fish into acid clean 60 ml HDPE (Nalgene) bottles.

Analysis for the nutrient samples was in most cases complete within 3-4 hours of sampling. Analysis was conducted using a Bran and Luebbe AAIII segmented flow colorimetric autoanalyser. Clean handling techniques were employed to avoid any contamination of the samples.

BODC Data Processing Procedures

Nutrients data from CTD profiles and 9 surface underway samples were received by BODC in a single file (SOLAS_INSPIRE_Micromolar_DATA_FINAL_2.xls). Profiles data were identified by CTD cast number, CTD bottle number and approximate depth. For the underway samples the sampling time was missing and the sampling date was ambiguous. The originators were contacted but no further information was received. The underway data have not therefore been processed further.

Parameter codes defined in the BODC parameter dictionary were mapped to the variables as follows:

The data were then banked according to BODC standard procedures for sample data.

For CTD data, incoming data are mapped to existing records in the BODC database (primarily obtained from digital CTD bottle firing files). The mapping was done by matching CTD cast numbers and CTD bottle numbers. Originator's depths were then compared with depths held in BODC database. If encountered, any significant mismatch is investigated and reported to the originator whenever possible. Unresolved problems would result in the data or bottle sample being flagged. No issues were found in this dataset.

Data Quality Report

The data were quality controlled by the originator. No additional information is available.

Data values which were indicated as below detection limit by the originator have been flagged using the appropriate flag in the BODC quality flag scheme. Two slightly negative nitrite values were flagged suspect by BODC.

Project Information

UK Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study

The UK Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (UK SOLAS) is the UK's contribution to the international SOLAS programme.

UK SOLAS formed interdisciplinary teams to address three primary aims

• To determine the mechanisms controlling rates of chemical transfer and improve estimates of chemical exchanges
• To evaluate the impact of these exchanges on the biogeochemistry of the surface ocean and lower atmosphere and on feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere
• To quantify the impacts of these boundary layer processes on the global climate system

UK SOLAS started in 2003, to run for seven years. The programme was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Funded projects

In total, 19 projects have been funded by UK SOLAS, over four funding rounds.

UK SOLAS has also supported ten tied studentships, and two CASE studentships.

Fieldwork

UK SOLAS fieldwork has included eight dedicated research cruises in the North Atlantic Ocean. Continuous measurements were made aboard aboard the Norwegian weather ship, Polarfront, until her decommission in 2009. Time series have been established at the SOLAS Cape Verde Observatory, and at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory L4 station. Experiments have taken place at the Bergen mesocosm facility.

A series of collaborative aircraft campaigns have added complementary atmospheric data. These campaigns were funded by UK SOLAS, African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA-UK), Dust and Biomass Experiment (DABEX) and the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM).

Weblink: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/solas/

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Data Activity

BODC Sample Metadata Report for D325_CTD_CTD_C040_TIT

Please note:the supplied parameters may not have been sampled from all the bottle firings described in the table above. Cross-match the Sample Reference Number above against the SAMPRFNM value in the data file to identify the relevant metadata.

Related Data Activity activities are detailed in Appendix 1

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

No Fixed Station Information held for the Series

BODC Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

Appendix 1: D325_CTD_CTD_C040_TIT

Related series for this Data Activity are presented in the table below. Further information can be found by following the appropriate links.

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