Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1640805

• 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

Originator's quality control comments for PD18_09 COBS moorings

Data supplied to BODC were accompanied by data quality notes from the Originator that detailed observations made when the data were processed and subsequent processing decisions. A summary of these notes have been provided in the tables below.

Site A

Rig#1066

Rig#1067

Site B

Rig#1068

Rig#1069

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

Sea-Bird SBE 37-SM MicroCAT

The SBE 37-SM MicroCAT is a high accuracy conductivity and temperature recorder (pressure optional). Designed for moorings and other long-duration, fixed-site deployments, MicroCATs have non-corroding titanium housings rated for operation to 7000 metres or pressure sensor full scale-range. Communication with the MicroCAT is over an internal, 3-wire, RS-232C link. The MicroCAT's aged and pressure-protected thermistor has a long history of exceptional accuracy and stability (typical drift is less than 0.002° per year). Electrical isolation of the conductivity electronics eliminates any possibility of ground-loop noise.

Specifications

Further information can be found via the following link: SBE 37-SM MicroCAT Datasheet

Coastal Observatory Sea-Bird MicroCAT Data Processing

Data Originator's Processing

After the mooring was recovered, the data were downloaded from the instrument logger, and factory calibrations were applied to the conductivity, temperature and pressure channels, when present.

Before the data were supplied to BODC, basic quality control was performed by the Data Originator. The first stage of quality checks involved comparing the data from each instrument with CTD measurements recorded during the deployment and recovery of the mooring. Following the comparison against CTD data secondary checks were performed by comparing the data from each instrument against the data from other sensors attached to that mooring. The Originator has provided BODC with a document containing a full description of their quality control methodology. Depending on the result of the quality checks for each series, one of the following actions was performed by the Originator:

• The data were declared good quality and no corrections were applied.
• Series with consistent offsets, spikes or periods of bad data were edited to correct for these issues. Spikes and periods of unrealistic values were converted to absent data indicators.
• The series was marked as 'use with caution', if there were problems which the Originator was unable to correct, or if it was unclear whether there was a problem with the data, such as in instances where it was not possible to perform all of the quality checks.
• If the quality of the data from a series was extremely poor, then the Originator recommended that the data should not be used.

A full description of the results of these quality checks can be found in the relevant Originator's data processing comments document.

Project Information

Oceans 2025 - The NERC Marine Centres' Strategic Research Programme 2007-2012

Who funds the programme?

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds the Oceans 2025 programme, which was originally planned in the context of NERC's 2002-2007 strategy and later realigned to NERC's subsequent strategy (Next Generation Science for Planet Earth; NERC 2007).

Who is involved in the programme?

The Oceans 2025 programme was designed by and is to be implemented through seven leading UK marine centres. The marine centres work together in coordination and are also supported by cooperation and input from government bodies, universities and other partners. The seven marine centres are:

• National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS)
• Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
• Marine Biological Association (MBA)
• Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Marine Science (SAHFOS)
• Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL)
• Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
• Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

Oceans2025 provides funding to three national marine facilities, which provide services to the wider UK marine community, in addition to the Oceans 2025 community. These facilities are:

• British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), hosted at POL
• Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), hosted at POL
• Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP), hosted at SAMS

The NERC-run Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative (SOFI) provides additional support to the programme by funding additional research projects and studentships that closely complement the Oceans 2025 programme, primarily through universities.

What is the programme about?

Oceans 2025 sets out to address some key challenges that face the UK as a result of a changing marine environment. The research funded through the programme sets out to increase understanding of the size, nature and impacts of these changes, with the aim to:

• improve knowledge of how the seas behave, not just now but in the future;
• help assess what that might mean for the Earth system and for society;
• assist in developing sustainable solutions for the management of marine resources for future generations;
• enhance the research capabilities and facilities available for UK marine science.

In order to address these aims there are nine science themes supported by the Oceans 2025 programme:

• Climate, circulation and sea level (Theme 1)
• Marine biogeochemical cycles (Theme 2)
• Shelf and coastal processes (Theme 3)
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Theme 4)
• Continental margins and deep ocean (Theme 5)
• Sustainable marine resources (Theme 6)
• Technology development (Theme 8)
• Next generation ocean prediction (Theme 9)
• Integration of sustained observations in the marine environment (Theme 10)

In the original programme proposal there was a theme on health and human impacts (Theme 7). The elements of this Theme have subsequently been included in Themes 3 and 9.

When is the programme active?

The programme started in April 2007 with funding for 5 years.

Brief summary of the programme fieldwork/data

Programme fieldwork and data collection are to be achieved through:

• physical, biological and chemical parameters sampling throughout the North and South Atlantic during collaborative research cruises aboard NERC's research vessels RRS Discovery, RRS James Cook and RRS James Clark Ross;
• the Continuous Plankton Recorder being deployed by SAHFOS in the North Atlantic and North Pacific on 'ships of opportunity';
• physical parameters measured and relayed in near real-time by fixed moorings and ARGO floats;
• coastal and shelf sea observatory data (Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory (LBCO) and Western Channel Observatory (WCO)) using the RV Prince Madog and RV Quest.

The data is to be fed into models for validation and future projections. Greater detail can be found in the Theme documents.

Oceans 2025 Theme 10

Oceans 2025 is a strategic marine science programme, bringing marine researchers together to increase people's knowledge of the marine environment so that they are better able to protect it for future generations.

Theme 10: Integration of Sustained Observations in the Marine Environment spans all marine domains from the sea-shore to the global ocean, providing data and knowledge on a wide range of ecosystem properties and processes (from ocean circulation to biodiversity) that are critical to understanding Earth system behaviour and identifying change. They have been developed not merely to provide long-term data sets, but to capture extreme or episodic events, and play a key role in the initialisation and validation of models. Many of these SOs will be integrated into the newly developing UK Marine Monitoring Strategy - evolving from the Defra reports Safeguarding our Seas (2002) and Charting Progress (2005), thus contributing to the underpinning knowledge for national marine stewardship. They will also contribute to the UK GOOS Strategic Plan (IACMST, 2006) and the Global Marine Assessment.

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

Oceans 2025 Theme 10, Sustained Observation Activity 11: Liverpool Bay and Irish Sea Coastal Observatory

Sustained, systematic observations of the ocean and continental shelf seas at appropriate time and space scales allied to numerical models are key to understanding and prediction. In shelf seas these observations address issues as fundamental as 'what is the capacity of shelf seas to absorb change?' encompassing the impacts of climate change, biological productivity and diversity, sustainable management, pollution and public health, safety at sea and extreme events. Advancing understanding of coastal processes to use and manage these resources better is challenging; important controlling processes occur over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales which cannot be simultaneously studied solely with satellite or ship-based platforms.

Considerable effort has been spent by the Proudman Oceangraphic Laboratory (POL) in the years 2001 - 2006 in setting up an integrated observational and now-cast modelling system in Liverpool Bay (see Figure), with the recent POL review stating the observatory was seen as a leader in its field and a unique 'selling' point of the laboratory. Cost benefit analysis (IACMST, 2004) shows that benefits really start to accrue after 10 years. In 2007 - 2012 exploitation of (i) the time series being acquired, (ii) the model-data synthesis and (iii) the increasingly available quantities of real-time data (e.g. river flows) can be carried out through Sustained Observation Activity (SO) 11, to provide an integrated assessment and short term forecasts of the coastal ocean state.

Overall Aims and Purpose of SO 11

• To continue and enlarge the scope of the existing coastal observatory in Liverpool Bay to routinely monitor the northern Irish Sea
• To develop the synthesis of measurements and models in the coastal ocean to optimize measurement arrays and forecast products. Driving forward shelf seas' operational oceanography with the direct objective of improving the national forecasting capability, expressed through links to the National Centre for Ocean Forecasting (NCOF)
• To exploit the long time-series of observations and model outputs to: a) identify the roles of climate and anthropogenic inputs on the coastal ocean's physical and biological functioning (including impacts of nutrient discharges, offshore renewable energy installations and fishing activity) taking into consideration the importance of events versus mean storms / waves, river discharge / variable salinity stratification / horizontal gradients; b) predict the impacts of climate change scenarios; and c) provide new insights to Irish Sea dynamics for variables either with seasonal cycles and interannual variability, or which show weak or no seasonal cycles
• To provide and maintain a 'laboratory' within which a variety of observational and model experiments can be undertaken (Oceans 2025 Themes 3, 6, 8, 9), including capture of extreme events
• Demonstrate the value of an integrated approach in assessment and forecasting
• Demonstrate the coastal observatory as a tool for marine management strategies through collaboration with the Environment Agency (EA), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Joint Nature Conservation Commmittee (JNCC), English Nature (EN), Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), and Local Authorities, providing management information pertinent to policy (e.g. Water Framework Directive)

Measurement and Modelling Activities

• East Mooring Site: Bottom frame with full suite of physical measurements (high frequency Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), conductivity, temperature, turbidity and fluorescence), a Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) directional wavebuoy, and a CEFAS Smartbuoy collecting surface properties including salinity, temperature, turbidity, nutrients, irradiance and chlorophyll. All transmit data in real-time via Orbcomm. The Smartbuoy also collects daily water samples.
• West Mooring Site: Bottom frame with full suite of physical measurements (high frequency ADCP, conductivity, temperature, turbidity and fluorescence), CEFAS Smartbuoy.
• Spatial Survey: Four - six week intervals (determined by biofouling of optical sensors). Spatial surveys comprise of vertical profiles of CTD, suspended particulate material (SPM), some bed sediment sampling and surface and bed nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton.
• Ferry: The Birkenhead - Belfast ferry samples near surface (5 m depth) temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, with data transmitted by Orbcomm. The route is scientifically varied passing through six completely different hydrodynamic regions, which significantly impact on their ecological function.
• Tide gauges: Real-time data are obtained from tide gauges operated by Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) and the UK tide gauge network.
• Satellite imagery: Weekly composite satellite data, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean colour (chlorophyll and suspended sediment), are provided by the Remote Sensing Data Analysis Service (RSDAS) based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).
• HF radar: A phased array HF radar system (a 12-16MHz WERA HF radar) measuring surface currents and waves with maximum range 75km at a resolution of 4km for sea surface currents and for 2-D wave spectra.
• Meteorology station: With web camera, located on Hilbre Island at the mouth of the Dee Estuary
• Operational models: The Coastal Observatory uses Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System (POLCOMS), which is part of Oceans 2025 Theme 9.

More detailed information on this Work Package is available at pages 32 - 35 of the official Oceans 2025 Theme 10 document: Oceans 2025 Theme 10

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

References:

IACMST., 2004. The Economics of Sustained Marine Measurements. IACMST Information Document, N0.11, Southampton: IACMST, 96 pp

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Data Activity

COBs Site B SmartBuoy deployment LB2_032/1068

Deployment and recovery

This mooring was deployed in a collaboration between Cefas and the POL Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory. The rig was deployed in May 2009 during RV Prince Madog cruise PD18/09. The rig was recovered in August 2009 during RV Prince Madog cruisePD33/09.

Rig Description

The SmartBuoy carried a suite of Cefas instruments mounted just below the surface, as well as instrumentation belonging to POL upto 15 m deep. Further information is given in the table below.

The single point mooring was composed mainly of 0.5 inch long link chain, marked by a 1.8 m diameter toroid and anchored by a half tonne clump of scrap chain.

The following instruments were connected to a Eco System Monitor;

The following instruments were stand alone sensors;

• Cefas - The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft (UK)
• POL - The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool (UK)

Related Data Activity activities are detailed in Appendix 1

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

Fixed Station Information

Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory Site 21

This station is one of 34 stations regularly visited by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) as part of the Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory. The main activity at this site are CTD profiles (since August 2002) which are taken during each site visit. This station was also the secondary mooring site (also referred to as Site B) for the Coastal Observatory project between April 2005 and March 2010. After March 2010 the moorings were moved to site 20. The station lies within a box of mean water depth 24 m with the following co-ordinates:

The position of this station relative to the other POL Coastal Observatory sites can be seen from the figure below.

Mooring Deployment History

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

CTD Sampling History

The CTD instrument package for these cruises was a Sea-Bird 911plus, with beam transmissometer, fluorometer, LICOR PAR sensor, LISST-25, and oxygen sensor.

Key

ADCP = Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
BD = Bacterial degradation experiment
CT = Conductivity and temperature logger
CTD = Conductivity, temperature, depth sensor
FL = Fluorometer
OBS = Optical Backscatter Turbidity meter
Telemetry ADCP = ADCP sending data back to shore in real-time
WMS = Automatic water sampler

Related Fixed Station activities are detailed in Appendix 2

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: LB2_032 / POLRIG1068

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

If you are interested in these series, please be aware we offer a multiple file download service. Should your credentials be insufficient for automatic download, the service also offers a referral to our Enquiries Officer who may be able to negotiate access.

Appendix 2: Coastal Observatory Site 21

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

If you are interested in these series, please be aware we offer a multiple file download service. Should your credentials be insufficient for automatic download, the service also offers a referral to our Enquiries Officer who may be able to negotiate access.